Bleaberry Fell is a

fell A fell (from Old Norse ''fell'', ''fjall'', "mountain"Falk and Torp (2006:161).) is a high and barren landscape feature, such as a mountain or Moorland, moor-covered hill. The term is most often employed in Fennoscandia, Iceland, the Isle of M ...

in the

Lake District The Lake District, also known as ''the Lakes'' or ''Lakeland'', is a mountainous region and National parks of the United Kingdom, national park in Cumbria, North West England. It is famous for its landscape, including its lakes, coast, and mou ...

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders the Scottish council areas of Dumfries and Galloway and Scottish Borders to the north, Northumberland and County Durham to the east, North Yorkshire to the south-east, Lancash ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, with a height of . It stands on the main watershed between Borrowdale and

Thirlmere Thirlmere is a reservoir in the Cumberland (unitary authority), Cumberland district in Cumbria and the English Lake District National Park, Lake District. The Helvellyn ridge lies to the east of Thirlmere. To the west of Thirlmere are a numbe ...

and can be climbed from either flank. Walla Crag is a subsidiary top of Bleaberry Fell.

Topography

Situated in the central area of the national park, south of Keswick, Bleaberry Fell is the northernmost top on the ridge that separates the valleys containing the lakes of Derwent Water ( Borrowdale) and

. This ridge, which also contains the fells of High Seat and High Tove, is notoriously boggy underfoot, but Bleaberry Fell is mostly dry and the heather-covered summit gives an excellent all-round vista. To the east the fell has the rock faces of Iron Crag and Goat Crags as it falls away towards the Thirlmere valley.

Ascents

The fell is usually climbed from the car park in Great Wood in Borrowdale, firstly ascending Walla Crag via Cat Gill and then continuing south-easterly for to Bleaberry Fell which is clearly in view. The fell can also be climbed from Keswick, an round trip, again going by Walla Crag. Walla Crag is in fact part of Bleaberry Fell, being the outlying north western crags, but is given the status of a separate fell by Lake District writers due to its excellent views and popularity. Another possible starting point is the hamlet of Dale Bottom on the main Keswick to Ambleside road. It is possible to continue from Bleaberry Fell southerly along the ridge to take in the other Wainwright fells of High Seat and High Tove following a line of old fenceposts. This ridge is very boggy.Mark Richards: ''The Central Fells'': Collins (2003):

Geology

The summit of the fell is representative of the Birker Fell Formation. This is composed of plagioclase- phyric

andesite Andesite () is a volcanic rock of intermediate composition. In a general sense, it is the intermediate type between silica-poor basalt and silica-rich rhyolite. It is fine-grained (aphanitic) to porphyritic in texture, and is composed predomina ...

lavas and subordinate sills. To the south en route to High Seat are

garnet Garnets () are a group of silicate minerals that have been used since the Bronze Age as gemstones and abrasives. Garnet minerals, while sharing similar physical and crystallographic properties, exhibit a wide range of chemical compositions, de ...

-bearing porphyric

. Much of the northern section is overlain by peat and till.British Geological Survey: 1:50,000 series maps, ''England & Wales Sheet 29'': BGS (1999)

Summit

The top is heather-clad and carries a number of

cairns Cairns (; ) is a city in the Cairns Region, Queensland, Australia, on the tropical north east coast of Far North Queensland. In the , Cairns had a population of 153,181 people. The city was founded in 1876 and named after William Cairns, Sir W ...

. Bleaberry Fell's central position is rewarded by a fine all-round view, all of the major fell groups being visible. Derwentwater can be brought into sight by moving to the north-west cairn.

References

{{Central Fells Fells of the Lake District