Abstract This paper presents the results of a petrographical and mineral chemical study of glaucophane- and barroisite-bearing eclogites from the Upper Kaghan nappe in the Higher Himalayan Crystallines of the Pakistan Himalaya, and discusses the implications of the P–T path recorded in such rocks for the tectonic and metamorphic history of the NW Himalaya. The eclogites described here come from a previously undescribed outcrop at Gittidas, but belong to the same suite as the garnet-omphacite-phengite-quartz-rutile eclogites previously described elsewhere in the Upper Kaghan nappe. The metamorphic peak assemblage is garnet omphacite-rutile-quartz in glaucophane eclogite and garnet-omphacite-zoisite-rutile ± kyanite ± phengite ± ankerite in barroisite eclogite. Most samples contain a significant amount of amphibole, white mica and quartz. White mica may be present either as part of the peak assemblage (phengite) or as a retrogressive phase after kyanite (paragonite). Amphibole is later than the metamorphic peak assemblage and is barroisite in most samples, but in relatively Fe-rich eclogite it is glaucophane with significant Na in the A site, Ca in the M4 site and tetrahedral Al. Garnet displays strong prograde zoning in the barroisite eclogites, with Mg increasing and Fe decreasing from core to rim. The iron-rich core is crowded with mineral inclusions of the peak assemblage, but inclusions of earlier paragonite, green and blue-green amphibole were also found. Peak metamorphic conditions in the barroisite eclogites have been estimated at T = 610 ± 30 °C and P = 24 ± 2 kbar from Fe/Mg partition in garnet omphacite pairs, and from the garnet-omphacite-phengite barometer. These values are close to the equilibration conditions estimated for the eclogites of the North Himalayan Tso-Morari Dome. Strong similarities between metamorphic evolution of the Upper Kaghan nappe and metamorphic evolution of the eclogite-bearing units of the Neelum valley just to the east of the Kaghan valley indicate that the eclogite occurrences of the Kaghan-Neelum area define an eclogite-bearing terrane of regional extent, which was subjected to high pressure metamorphism in middle Eocene times. A comparison of the metamorphic evolution recorded in the eclogites of the NW Himalaya with that of the granulitized eclogites recently discovered in the E Himalaya suggests the possibility of a Himalaya-wide eclogitic metamorphism of pre-Miocene age. Therefore, the main difference between the Higher Himalayan Crystalline nappes of the NW Himalaya and those of the E Himalaya appears to lie less in the early part of their metamorphic evolution than in the different P–T paths they followed during exhumation.