1: The Eastern Fells (Page Three)

1. The EASTERN FELLS
2. The FAR EASTERN
FELLS
3. The CENTRAL FELLS
4. The SOUTHERN FELLS
5. The NORTHERN FELLS
6. The NORTH WESTERN
FELLS
7. The WESTERN FELLS

Wainwright's Eastern Fells

The Eastern Fells • 3

THE FELLS IN THIS AREA:

ARNISON CRAG • BIRKHOUSE MOOR • BIRKS • CATSTYCAM • CLOUGH HEAD • DOLLYWAGON PIKE • DOVE CRAG • FAIRFIELD • GLENRIDDING DODD • GOWBARROW FELL • GREAT DODD • GREAT MELL FELL • GREAT RIGG • HART CRAG • HART SIDE • HARTSOP ABOVE HOW • HELVELLYN • HERON PIKE • HIGH HARTSOP DODD • HIGH PIKE • LITTLE HART CRAG • LITTLE MELL FELL • LOW PIKE • MIDDLE DODD • NAB SCAR • NETHERMOST PIKE • RAISE • RED SCREES • ST SUNDAY CRAG • SEAT SANDAL • SHEFFIELD PIKE • STONE ARTHUR • STYBARROW DODD • WATSON'S DODD • WHITE SIDE

HARTSOP ABOVE HOW
Height: 1870', (570m)
Grid Ref: NY 383120

Hartsop Above How is the name given to the long ridge which rises to Hart Crag, between the valleys of Dovedale and Deepdale. The highest point is about halfway along, above Gill Crag.

Hartsop above How from the cave on Dove Crag

HELVELLYN
Height: 3118', (950m)
Grid Ref: NY 342151

It's often stated that Helvellyn is climbed by more people than any other British mountain. (A survey in 1966 recorded up to 600 visitors to the summit per day during the World Cup Finals). It is climbed from all directions, but most people concur that the finest approaches to Helvellyn are from the east, the classic route encompassing the circuit of Red Tarn via the twin ridges of Striding Edge and Swirral Edge.

Striding Edge is particularly exhilirating, a knife-edge ridge which can be traversed along the very crest, or by a narrow path which winds a parallel route a few feet below. Despite its reputation, Striding Edge is only really dangerous in icy conditions (when it's considered a winter Grade I scramble), though a memorial halfway along the ridge does little to help the novice's confidence. This is the Dixon memorial, one of several monuments on Helvellyn, which was erected here to mark the spot where a nineteenth century fox hunter, Roger Dixon, fell to his death way back in 1858. It's located just below the highest point of the ridge, High Spying How, which is regarded as a minor summit in itself by peakbaggers.

The only real difficulty on the Edge is an awkward scramble down a steep chimney at the western end, but this (and the queues that sometimes form above it) can be avoided by taking a path which runs along the south side of the ridge. This can be picked up a little way back. After the chimney, a narrow path leads to the summit plateau, passing the Gough memorial (see below).

Scrambling down the rock chimney on Striding Edge

Helvellyn's summit cairn is relatively small, most people arriving here tend to congregate at the large cross-shaped wind shelter. The trig pillar is about a hundred yards north west of the main cairn, and the lesser summit of Lower Man (3033' / 925m) is about a half mile away in the same direction.

There are two memorials on the summit. Just south of the shelter, a small tablet celebrates the first successful landing of an aeroplane on a British mountain top by John Leeming and Bert Hinkler in 1926. After a brief stop, they took off in their Avro 585 Gosport, apparently taking a short run straight over the crags above Red Tarn. (The National Park Authority frowns on this sort of thing these days).

The other more prominent monument stands near the path which comes up from Striding Edge. This relates the story of Charles Gough, a Kendal Quaker who fell into the corrie of Red Tarn while making his way over from Patterdale to Wythburn with his dog Foxie on 18 April, 1805. His body was found almost three months later on 20 July, guarded by the emaciated dog, a whch inspired poems by both Sir Walter Scott (Helvellyn) and William Wordsworth (Fidelity, which is quoted on the tableau).

Erecting the Gough Memorial on Helvellyn, 18 June, 1891

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HERON PIKE
Height: 2008', (612m)
Grid Ref: NY 356083

Heron Pike is of little significance, being hardly a bump on the long ridge that makes up the western arc of the Fairfield Horseshoe. A shelf on its lower slopes holds a small sheet of water, Alcock Tarn.

Note: Sheffield Pike, several miles to the north, has a subsidiary summit called Heron Pike.

HIGH HARTSOP DODD
Height: 1702', (519m)
Grid Ref: NY 393108

From the campsite near Brotherswater, High Hartsop Dodd appears to be one of the finest fell in the district, offering a steep climb to a pointed summit. However, this is an illusion - once the summit is reached, a rigde continues onto the summit of Little Hart Crag.

HIGH PIKE
Height: 2152', (656m)
Grid Ref: NY 374088

High Pike, sometimes referred to as Scandale Fell, is one of the fells which is climbed as part of the Fairfield Horseshoe from Ambleside. If this is undertaken in an anti-clockwise direction, then High Pike is the second summit to be climbed, appearing as a shapely pyramid on the moderately steep approach from Low Pike. When approached from Dove Crag as part of a clockwise circuit, however, it will be noticed that High Pike offers very little reascent (certainly no more than a few feet), and even in fair weather many walkers probably bypass the summit cairn without realising it, (it's a few yards east of a distinct bend in the wall).

Note: there is another High Pike in the Northern Fells.

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High Pike from the summit of Low Pike

LITTLE HART CRAG
Height: 2091', (637m)
Grid Ref: NY 387100

Little Hart Crag rises above the Scandale Pass, and represents a small but worthwhile detour for walkers linking Red Screes with Dove crag and the Fairfield range. There are two distinct summits, the western top being slightly the higher. The small Scandale Tarn lies just above the pass, near a junction of a fence and a wall.The ridge which descends towards Brotherswater features a point halfway down, High Hartsop Dodd, which Wainwright treats as a summit, though there is no discernible reascent from this direction.

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Approaching Little Hart Crag across Bakestones Moss

LITTLE MELL FELL
Height: 1657, (505m)
Grid Ref: NY 423240

The summit of Little Mell Fell can probably be reached quicker than any other if approached from a car parked at The Hause. It's a lot more awkward for the backpacker, particularly when combined with Great Mell Fell.

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LOW PIKE
Height: 1667', (508m)
Grid reference: NY 348093

This is the last fell to be ascended when walking the Fairfield Horseshoe in a clockwise direction. It's easy to miss the summit in mist as the path does not cross it. The wall does cross the summit, which can be reached by a short scramble, (there is only about 100 feet of ascent when approached from High Pike).

Low Pike

MIDDLE DODD
Height: 2146', (654m)
Grid Ref: NY 397095

Middle Dodd, like its neighbour High Hartsop Dodd across Caiston Beck, gives the illusion of a being a fine pyramidical fell. However, upon reaching the dubious summit, one finds the ridge continuing to Red Screes with minimal loss of height. (For some reason, Wainwright did not indicate a ridge route linking Red Screes with Middle Dodd, though it is straight forward on the ground and presents no problems).

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