Although small and not of great elevation, its top is a fine viewpoint for Ullswater and for the fells clustered round the valleys above Patterdale.

To the east the ridge falls steeply and terminates in the precipitous rock face of Stybarrow Crag beside the A592 road on the shore of Ullswater.

[1] The lower slopes on the south and east sides are wooded with deciduous trees (the Stybarrow Oaks),[2][3] and on the north side larch trees reach almost to the summit Glenridding Dodd is a small fell measuring only 1 km in length and less than that in width, and its highest point rises to only 442 m. Yet it is a fine viewpoint over Ullswater, nearly 300 m below.

[1] Ascents can begin from Glenridding, with its large pay-and-display car park, up the path known as The Rake, or from the lay-by on the A592 road immediately north of Stybarrow Crag, beside Mossdale Beck.

[8] Such dacitic rock is found on the lower parts of the southern and eastern slopes of the fell (but not including Stybarrow Crag).

'[12] Dod or dodd is a dialect word of unknown origin, but common in hill names in the Lake District and the Scottish Borders for bare rounded summits, either free standing or subsidiary shoulders to higher neighbours.