Low Fell
Encyclopedia
Low Fell is a fell
in the English Lake District
. It overlooks the lake of Loweswater
to the south and to the north is bordered by its neighbour Fellbarrow
. It is usually climbed from the villages of Loweswater
or Thackthwaite
. The fell is largely occupied by grassed enclosures, although there are some rocky outcrops near the top. Low Fell has fairly steep slopes to the south and east.
occupy a triangular sector of the Lake District, bordered by the River Cocker to the north east and Wasdale
to the south east. Westwards, the hills diminish towards the coastal plain of Cumberland. At the central hub of the high country are Great Gable
and its satellites, while two principal ridges fan out on either flank of Ennerdale
, the western fells in effect being a great horseshoe around this long wild valley. Low Fell and Fellbarrow
stand remote from the end of the northern arm.
Loweswater
is unique amongst the major lakes of the District in emptying towards the centre of the National Park
. Its waters flow out eastwards into Crummock Water
before beginning their northward journey as the Cocker. Loweswater does not therefore represent any watershed between the fell
s on either side of its valley, as might be supposed from a quick glance at the map. A low ridge circuiting the western end of the lake joins Burnbank Fell
to Low Fell and Fellbarrow, confirming them as the last outpost of the Western Fells.
Low Fell and Fellbarrow form a ridge two mile
s long, with the somewhat contrarily named Low Fell being the higher. Alfred Wainwright
in his influential Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells
was forced to estimate the elevation of Low Fell and considered it (albeit doubtfully) to be inferior to Fellbarrow. New mapping by the Ordnance Survey
has now settled the issue. The lowest col
on the ridge occurs immediately south of Fellbarrow, and the intervening tops are therefore usually considered satellites of Low Fell. These lower summits, working southward, are Smithy Fell (1,296 ft) and Sourfoot Fell (1,350 ft).
The southern terminus of the ridge, looking down on Loweswater village, is rough on all sides, rising to a small neat top. This was considered the summit by Wainwright, although again he was unsure and ill-served by the maps of the time. Birkett refers to this 1,352 ft top as Loweswater Fell, although without any particular justification. North of this point is a slight depression before the smoother and more elongated true summit.
A subsidiary ridge breaks off south-west from Sourfoot Fell, crossing the slight hump of Loftbarrow before reaching Darling Fell (1,282 ft). This stands over the northern shore of Loweswater, about halfway up the lake. Between Darling Fell and Low Fell is the little valley of Crabtree Beck. In general, the western slopes of the Low Fell ridge are long and gentle, while some rock appears along the steeper eastern and southern flanks.
The western boundary of the fell proper lies at Leady Moss, the low point on the connecting ridge to Burnbank Fell. From here, the Dub Beck flows into Loweswater while the Black Beck flows north-west into the River Marron. The open fellside is circumscribed by a minor road which runs from the shore of Loweswater north to Mosser. In the east, the slopes fall quickly to the cultivated lands of the broad Vale of Lorton. Raven Crag below the summit and Watching Crag on Sourfoot Fell are the main features.
sandstone
turbidities. Beneath this and occasionally outcropping on the eastern flanks are the laminated mudstone
and siltstone
of the Kirk Stile Formation.
s lower down the southern face gave better vantage points for the Loweswater Valley. From either summit, there are views to Grasmoor
, across the Lorton
Vale and down the Buttermere
valley in which you can see Crummock Water
and Buttermere
.
Both tops are marked by cairns; the true summit top being on a small outcrop amid short fell grass and large rocks.
in the Vale of Lorton. A footpath leads away from the settlement climbing to the intake wall. Beyond is a drove road, curving up the hillside to emerge at the top of Sourfoot Fell. The ridge from here is easy. An alternative start is from the Mosser road, climbing Darling Fell before joining the main ridge. Wainwright also suggests following Crabtree Beck for a direct ascent of Low Fell.
Fell
“Fell” is a word used to refer to mountains, or certain types of mountainous landscape, in Scandinavia, the Isle of Man, and parts of northern England.- Etymology :...
in the English Lake District
Lake District
The Lake District, also commonly known as The Lakes or Lakeland, is a mountainous region in North West England. A popular holiday destination, it is famous not only for its lakes and its mountains but also for its associations with the early 19th century poetry and writings of William Wordsworth...
. It overlooks the lake of Loweswater
Loweswater
Loweswater is one of the smaller lakes in the English Lake District. The village of Loweswater is situated at the foot of the lake.The lake is not far from Cockermouth and is also easily reached from elsewhere in West Cumbria. The group of fells to the south of Loweswater is known as the Loweswater...
to the south and to the north is bordered by its neighbour Fellbarrow
Fellbarrow
Fellbarrow is a low hill in the north west of the English Lake District. It is not far from the town of Cockermouth, near to Loweswater and can most easily be climbed from Low Lorton, or Thackthwaite...
. It is usually climbed from the villages of Loweswater
Loweswater, Cumbria
Loweswater is a village and civil parish in the county of Cumbria, England.-Village:The village lies between the Lake District lakes of Loweswater and Crummock Water, about south of Cockermouth and within the Lake District National Park...
or Thackthwaite
Thackthwaite
Thackthwaite is a village in Cumbria, England, from which hikers can climb Low Fell and Fellbarrow.A second place called Thackthwaite is located just to the north of Little Mell Fell, at ....
. The fell is largely occupied by grassed enclosures, although there are some rocky outcrops near the top. Low Fell has fairly steep slopes to the south and east.
Topography
The Western FellsWestern Fells
The Western Fells are a group of hills in the English Lake District. Centred on Great Gable they occupy a triangular area between Buttermere and Wasdale...
occupy a triangular sector of the Lake District, bordered by the River Cocker to the north east and Wasdale
Wasdale
Wasdale is a valley and civil parish in the western part of the Lake District National Park in Cumbria, England. The River Irt flows through the valley to its estuary at Ravenglass. A large part of the main valley floor is occupied by Wastwater, the deepest lake in England...
to the south east. Westwards, the hills diminish towards the coastal plain of Cumberland. At the central hub of the high country are Great Gable
Great Gable
Great Gable is a mountain lying at the very heart of the English Lake District, appearing as a pyramid from Wasdale , but as a dome from most other directions. It is one of the most popular of the Lakeland fells, and there are many different routes to the summit...
and its satellites, while two principal ridges fan out on either flank of Ennerdale
Ennerdale
Ennerdale may refer to:* Ennerdale, Gauteng, a suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa* Ennerdale Water, a lake in the Lake District in England**Ennerdale Bridge, a nearby settlement...
, the western fells in effect being a great horseshoe around this long wild valley. Low Fell and Fellbarrow
Fellbarrow
Fellbarrow is a low hill in the north west of the English Lake District. It is not far from the town of Cockermouth, near to Loweswater and can most easily be climbed from Low Lorton, or Thackthwaite...
stand remote from the end of the northern arm.
Loweswater
Loweswater
Loweswater is one of the smaller lakes in the English Lake District. The village of Loweswater is situated at the foot of the lake.The lake is not far from Cockermouth and is also easily reached from elsewhere in West Cumbria. The group of fells to the south of Loweswater is known as the Loweswater...
is unique amongst the major lakes of the District in emptying towards the centre of the National Park
Lake District National Park
The Lake District National Park is located in the north-west of England and is the largest of the English National Parks and the second largest in the United Kingdom. It is in the central and most-visited part of the Lake District....
. Its waters flow out eastwards into Crummock Water
Crummock Water
Crummock Water is a lake in the Lake District in Cumbria, North West England situated between Buttermere to the south and Loweswater to the north. Crummock Water is two and a half miles long, three quarters of a mile wide and 140ft deep. The River Cocker is considered to start at the north of the...
before beginning their northward journey as the Cocker. Loweswater does not therefore represent any watershed between the fell
Fell
“Fell” is a word used to refer to mountains, or certain types of mountainous landscape, in Scandinavia, the Isle of Man, and parts of northern England.- Etymology :...
s on either side of its valley, as might be supposed from a quick glance at the map. A low ridge circuiting the western end of the lake joins Burnbank Fell
Burnbank Fell
Burnbank Fell is a small hill in the west of the English Lake District. It is the most westerly of the Loweswater Fells, a group of low grassy hills lying just south of Loweswater. The hill is predominantly grassy with sprawling flanks and a broad ridge connecting it to Blake Fell...
to Low Fell and Fellbarrow, confirming them as the last outpost of the Western Fells.
Low Fell and Fellbarrow form a ridge two mile
Mile
A mile is a unit of length, most commonly 5,280 feet . The mile of 5,280 feet is sometimes called the statute mile or land mile to distinguish it from the nautical mile...
s long, with the somewhat contrarily named Low Fell being the higher. Alfred Wainwright
Alfred Wainwright
Alfred Wainwright MBE was a British fellwalker, guidebook author and illustrator. His seven-volume Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells, published between 1955 and 1966 and consisting entirely of reproductions of his manuscript, has become the standard reference work to 214 of the fells of the...
in his influential Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells
Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells
A Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells is a series of seven books by A. Wainwright, detailing the fells of the Lake District in northwest England...
was forced to estimate the elevation of Low Fell and considered it (albeit doubtfully) to be inferior to Fellbarrow. New mapping by the Ordnance Survey
Ordnance Survey
Ordnance Survey , an executive agency and non-ministerial government department of the Government of the United Kingdom, is the national mapping agency for Great Britain, producing maps of Great Britain , and one of the world's largest producers of maps.The name reflects its creation together with...
has now settled the issue. The lowest col
Mountain pass
A mountain pass is a route through a mountain range or over a ridge. If following the lowest possible route, a pass is locally the highest point on that route...
on the ridge occurs immediately south of Fellbarrow, and the intervening tops are therefore usually considered satellites of Low Fell. These lower summits, working southward, are Smithy Fell (1,296 ft) and Sourfoot Fell (1,350 ft).
The southern terminus of the ridge, looking down on Loweswater village, is rough on all sides, rising to a small neat top. This was considered the summit by Wainwright, although again he was unsure and ill-served by the maps of the time. Birkett refers to this 1,352 ft top as Loweswater Fell, although without any particular justification. North of this point is a slight depression before the smoother and more elongated true summit.
A subsidiary ridge breaks off south-west from Sourfoot Fell, crossing the slight hump of Loftbarrow before reaching Darling Fell (1,282 ft). This stands over the northern shore of Loweswater, about halfway up the lake. Between Darling Fell and Low Fell is the little valley of Crabtree Beck. In general, the western slopes of the Low Fell ridge are long and gentle, while some rock appears along the steeper eastern and southern flanks.
The western boundary of the fell proper lies at Leady Moss, the low point on the connecting ridge to Burnbank Fell. From here, the Dub Beck flows into Loweswater while the Black Beck flows north-west into the River Marron. The open fellside is circumscribed by a minor road which runs from the shore of Loweswater north to Mosser. In the east, the slopes fall quickly to the cultivated lands of the broad Vale of Lorton. Raven Crag below the summit and Watching Crag on Sourfoot Fell are the main features.
Geology
The rocks beneath the summit are of the Loweswater Formation, composed of greywackeGreywacke
Greywacke or Graywacke is a variety of sandstone generally characterized by its hardness, dark color, and poorly sorted angular grains of quartz, feldspar, and small rock fragments or lithic fragments set in a compact, clay-fine matrix. It is a texturally immature sedimentary rock generally found...
sandstone
Sandstone
Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...
turbidities. Beneath this and occasionally outcropping on the eastern flanks are the laminated mudstone
Mudstone
Mudstone is a fine grained sedimentary rock whose original constituents were clays or muds. Grain size is up to 0.0625 mm with individual grains too small to be distinguished without a microscope. With increased pressure over time the platey clay minerals may become aligned, with the...
and siltstone
Siltstone
Siltstone is a sedimentary rock which has a grain size in the silt range, finer than sandstone and coarser than claystones.- Description :As its name implies, it is primarily composed of silt sized particles, defined as grains 1/16 - 1/256 mm or 4 to 8 on the Krumbein phi scale...
of the Kirk Stile Formation.
Summit and View
Wainwright described the view from the lower southern top, noting that two cairnCairn
Cairn is a term used mainly in the English-speaking world for a man-made pile of stones. It comes from the or . Cairns are found all over the world in uplands, on moorland, on mountaintops, near waterways and on sea cliffs, and also in barren desert and tundra areas...
s lower down the southern face gave better vantage points for the Loweswater Valley. From either summit, there are views to Grasmoor
Grasmoor
Grasmoor is a mountain in the north-western part of the Lake District, northern England. It is the highest peak in a group of hills between the villages of Lorton, Braithwaite and Buttermere, and overlooks Crummock Water....
, across the Lorton
Lorton, Cumbria
Lorton is a civil parish in the district of Allerdale, in the county of Cumbria, England, containing two small villages - Low Lorton and High Lorton, both approximately four miles south of Cockermouth. At the time of the 2001 census, the parish had a total population of 250 people...
Vale and down the Buttermere
Buttermere
Buttermere is a lake in the English Lake District in North West England. The adjacent village of Buttermere takes its name from the lake. Historically within the former county of Cumberland, the lake is now within the county of Cumbria. It is owned by the National Trust, forming part of their...
valley in which you can see Crummock Water
Crummock Water
Crummock Water is a lake in the Lake District in Cumbria, North West England situated between Buttermere to the south and Loweswater to the north. Crummock Water is two and a half miles long, three quarters of a mile wide and 140ft deep. The River Cocker is considered to start at the north of the...
and Buttermere
Buttermere
Buttermere is a lake in the English Lake District in North West England. The adjacent village of Buttermere takes its name from the lake. Historically within the former county of Cumberland, the lake is now within the county of Cumbria. It is owned by the National Trust, forming part of their...
.
Both tops are marked by cairns; the true summit top being on a small outcrop amid short fell grass and large rocks.
Ascents
The gentlest way onto the ridge is from ThackthwaiteThackthwaite
Thackthwaite is a village in Cumbria, England, from which hikers can climb Low Fell and Fellbarrow.A second place called Thackthwaite is located just to the north of Little Mell Fell, at ....
in the Vale of Lorton. A footpath leads away from the settlement climbing to the intake wall. Beyond is a drove road, curving up the hillside to emerge at the top of Sourfoot Fell. The ridge from here is easy. An alternative start is from the Mosser road, climbing Darling Fell before joining the main ridge. Wainwright also suggests following Crabtree Beck for a direct ascent of Low Fell.