Boat How or Eskdale Moor is a hill in the English
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 ...
, near
Boot
A boot is a type of footwear. Most boots mainly cover the foot and the ankle, while some also cover some part of the lower calf. Some boots extend up the leg, sometimes as far as the knee or even the hip. Most boots have a heel that is clearl ...
, in
Cumberland
Cumberland ( ) is an area of North West England which was historically a county. The county was bordered by Northumberland to the north-east, County Durham to the east, Westmorland to the south-east, Lancashire to the south, and the Scottish ...
,
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 ...
.
It lies south of
Burnmoor Tarn, between the
River Mite to the west and the
Whillan Beck tributary of
Eskdale to the east.
It is the subject of a chapter of
Wainwright's book ''
The Outlying Fells of Lakeland''. It reaches and Wainwright describes an anticlockwise circuit from Boot. He says: "Its proliferation of ancient remains makes it a happy hunting ground for walkers with an eye for relics of days long past", mentioning the presence of four
stone circle
A stone circle is a ring of megalithic standing stones. Most are found in Northwestern Europe – especially Stone circles in the British Isles and Brittany – and typically date from the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age, with most being ...
s.
Richards in his ''Fellranger'' books names the hill as Eskdale Moor and refers to the summit outcrop as Boat How, but the
Database of British and Irish Hills
The mountains and hills of the British Isles are categorised into various lists based on different combinations of elevation, prominence, and other criteria such as isolation. These lists are used for peak bagging, whereby hillwalkers attempt ...
identifies it as Boat How, while classifying it as a
Tump
The mountains and hills of the British Isles are categorised into various lists based on different combinations of elevation, prominence, and other criteria such as isolation. These lists are used for peak bagging, whereby hillwalkers attempt ...
,
Outlying Fell,
Birkett,
Synge and
Fellranger.
Richards describes ascent routes from
Dalegarth railway station,
Miterdale Forest or the village of
Eskdale Green, and describes the fell as "Tract of fascinating moorland between Miterdale and Eskdale, with tarns and ancient relics".
Historic England
Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked with prot ...
uses the name Burnmoor, for an area including Boat How but extending north of
Burnmoor Tarn: in its description of "Maiden Castle round cairn, Burnmoor", to the north of the tarn, it describes it as lying "at the northern end of a large area of open moorland known as Burnmoor which contains an abundance of prehistoric remains". There are four scheduled ancient monuments on the fell, described as "Cairnfield including a funerary cairn, standing stone and three stone banks south of Eller How, Burnmoor", "Prehistoric enclosure containing three hut circles and eight clearance cairns and an adjacent hut circle and cairnfield north east of Boat How, Burnmoor", "Prehistoric enclosure containing ten clearance cairns south west of Boat How, Burnmoor" and "Cairnfield including a prehistoric enclosure, 5 stone circles, 10 funerary cairns, 6 stone banks, 2 stone walls, a lynchet and a trackway on Burnmoor"
(known as
Burnmoor stone circles
The Burnmoor Stone Circles are a group of five different approximately 4000-year-old stone circles in Cumbria. They are around 1 mile north of the village of Boot, on the slopes of Boat How. The site which covers roughly a square mile is looked ...
).
References
Fells of the Lake District
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