Catstye Cam 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 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 ...

. It is an outlier of

Helvellyn Helvellyn (; possible #Names, meaning: ''pale yellow moorland'') is a mountain in the English Lake District, the highest point of the Helvellyn range, a north–south line of mountains to the north of Ambleside, between the lakes of Thirlmere a ...

in the Eastern Fells.

Name

The name of the fell is also given as 'Catstycam', a spelling preferred by

Alfred Wainwright Alfred Wainwright Order of the British Empire, MBE (17 January 1907 – 20 January 1991), who preferred to be known as A. Wainwright or A.W., was a British fellwalking, fellwalker, guidebook author and illustrator. His seven-volume ''Pictorial ...

in his influential ''

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 (the local word for hills and mountains) of the Lake District in northwest England. Written over a period of 13 years from 1952, they ...

''. A third variant, 'Catchedicam', is also quoted by him. Other guidebooks such as Collins LandrangerRichards, Mark: ''Near Eastern Fells'': Collins (2003): and Birkett follow Wainwright with 'Catstycam', although the maps of the

Ordnance Survey The Ordnance Survey (OS) is the national mapping agency for Great Britain. The agency's name indicates its original military purpose (see Artillery, ordnance and surveying), which was to map Scotland in the wake of the Jacobite rising of ...

always use 'Catstye Cam'.

Topography

The Helvellyn range runs broadly north to south for about 7 miles, remaining above throughout its length. Helvellyn itself sits near the centre of this ridge and displays the characteristic form of many of these fells, namely smooth grassy slopes to the west and shattered rock to the east. Helvellyn sends out two eastward

arête An arête ( ; ) is a narrow ridge of rock that separates two valleys. It is typically formed when two glaciers erode parallel U-shaped valleys. Arêtes can also form when two glacial cirques erode headwards towards one another, although frequ ...

s, razor-thin ridges between deep mountain corries. The southerly spur is Striding Edge, easily the most famous ridge in the district, and its northern partner is Swirral Edge. From the summit plateau of Helvellyn a rough slope drops to the start of Swirral Edge, and this narrow ridge curves gracefully down and then back up over half a mile, terminating at Catstye Cam. Taking on the classic mountain shape of a

pyramid A pyramid () is a structure whose visible surfaces are triangular in broad outline and converge toward the top, making the appearance roughly a pyramid in the geometric sense. The base of a pyramid can be of any polygon shape, such as trian ...

, Catstye Cam draws the eye in any view where the overtopping bulk of Helvellyn is hidden behind. As Wainwright said ''"If Catstycam stood alone, remote from its fellows, it would be one of the finest peaks in Lakeland. It has nearly, but not quite, the perfect mountain form with true simplicity in its soaring lines, and a small pointed top, a real summit that falls away on all sides"''.

:''

A 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 (the local word for hills and mountains) of the Lake District in northwest England. Written over a period of 13 years from 1952, they ...

'', Book 1: Even with the connection to Helvellyn, Catstye Cam still has a

prominence In topography, prominence or relative height (also referred to as autonomous height, and shoulder drop in US English, and drop in British English) measures the height of a mountain or hill's summit relative to the lowest contour line encircling ...

of over due to the pronounced bow of Swirral Edge. High Spying How on Striding Edge, by comparison, is nothing but a rock turret, an independent peak in almost no-one's estimation. East of the summit the ridge declines quickly to Red Tarn Beck, whilst there is a third ridge to the north west, giving Catstye Cam a triangular plan. To the north, between the two descending ridges, is an area of crag. The other two faces are steep but smooth. South of Catstye Cam, nestling between the encircling arms of Helvellyn's two edges, is Red Tarn. This pool is named for the colour of the surrounding screes rather than its water, and contains brown trout and schelly, a fresh-water herring. The depth of Red Tarn is now about , although in the mid-19th century it was dammed with boulders to increase capacity.Blair, Don; ''Exploring Lakeland Tarns''; Lakeland Manor Press (2003); This was carried out to provide additional water to the Greenside Mine in Glenridding, the water race still visible as it crosses the slope of Birkhouse Moor. A second tarn once existed in Brown Cove to the north at Catstye Cam, but this is now reduced to a couple of small pools widening the stream. Brown Cove Tarn was another creation of the Greenside mine, a stone faced dam being built in about 1860. The dam is still in place but water now leaks through the base, the extended tarn-bed a smooth patch of luxuriant turf. A water leat passing beneath the north face of Catstye Cam to Red Tarn Beck can still be traced although it is now in ruins.Adams, John: ''Mines of the Lake District Fells'', Dalesman (1995); Water from Brown Cove and Red Tarn unites at the base of the east ridge to form Glenridding Beck, flowing on through the village to

Ullswater Ullswater is a glacial lake in Cumbria, England and part of the Lake District National Park. It is the second largest lake in the region by both area and volume, after Windermere. The lake is about long, wide, and has a maximum depth of . I ...

Geology

The principal rock type is the dacitic

lapilli tuff Lapilli (: lapillus) is a size classification of tephra, which is material that falls out of the air during a volcanic eruption or during some meteorite impacts. ''Lapilli'' is Latin for "little stones". By definition lapilli range from in diam ...

of the Helvellyn Formation.

British Geological Survey The British Geological Survey (BGS) is a partly publicly funded body which aims to advance Earth science, geoscientific knowledge of the United Kingdom landmass and its continental shelf by means of systematic surveying, monitoring and research. ...

: 1:50,000 series maps, ''England & Wales Sheet 29'': BGS (1999)

Summit

The summit of Catstye Cam is small and neat, bearing only a tiny

cairn A cairn is a human-made pile (or stack) of stones raised for a purpose, usually as a marker or as a burial mound. The word ''cairn'' comes from the (plural ). Cairns have been and are used for a broad variety of purposes. In prehistory, t ...

. The view is extensive and even the looming Helvellyn only adds to the drama by showing its eastern face in close detail. Striding Edge is also seen in profile across Red Tarn, lines of pilgrims frequently queueing at the bottlenecks. By contrast Catstye Cam is often almost completely deserted.

Ascents

Catstye Cam is normally climbed from Glenridding, either by its east or north west ridges. Both are steep, but there are no technical difficulties. A fair path also climbs via Red Tarn to the midpoint of Swirral Edge, from where a brief detour back to the summit can be made. By far the best option is a circular tour via Striding and Swirral Edges. This takes in Birkhouse Moor, Helvellyn and Catstye Cam, one of the most breathtaking walks in the country.

References

Image:catstye.jpg, Catstye Cam and Swirral Edge Image:cats-tarn.jpg, Catstye Cam and Red Tarn Image:catstye2.jpg, Catstye Cam {{Eastern Fells Hewitts of England Fells of the Lake District Nuttalls Patterdale