At 335 metres (1,099 ft), it is the highest point of the group of hills situated between Coniston Water and Windermere.

Top o'Selside lies not in the centre of this region, but in the south-western corner, just outside the forestry plantations of Grizedale Forest and only two-thirds of a mile from the eastern shore of Coniston Water.

It is listed in Alfred Wainwright's Pictorial Guide to the Outlying Fells,[1] where the author gives an anticlockwise circuit from High Nibthwaite reaching the summit by way of a nameless summit at 228 metres (748 ft) (actually one of two cairns visited on the western edge of Brock Barrow), Low Light Haw at 2,660 feet (810 m), High Light Haw at 260 metres (860 ft), and returning to the west.

The Old Man of Coniston, Black Combe, the Helvellyn and High Street groups all feature prominently, as well as Ingleborough in the Yorkshire Dales.

There are extensive views of Coniston Water from the two cairns which Wainwright visits on the ascent, and from the track used for the return journey.