Causey Pike is a
fell in the English
Lake District. It is situated in the
Newlands Valley, 5 km south-west of the town of
Keswick. Even though it has a modest height of 637 metres (2,090 ft) it is one of the most distinctive fells when viewed from the
Derwent Water
Derwentwater, or Derwent Water, is one of the principal bodies of water in the Lake District National Park in north west England. It lies wholly within the Borough of Allerdale, in the county of Cumbria.
The lake occupies part of Borrow ...
and Keswick area due to its distinguishing summit "knobble" which catches the eye. The fell is one of 214 fells described by
Alfred Wainwright
Alfred Wainwright MBE (17 January 1907 – 20 January 1991), who preferred to be known as A. Wainwright or A.W., was a British fellwalker, guidebook author and illustrator. His seven-volume ''Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells'', published ...
in his series of ''
Pictorial Guides to the Lakeland Fells'': Causey Pike features in Book Six, ''The North Western Fells''.
Topography
The
North Western Fells
The North Western Fells are a group of hills in the English Lake District. Including such favourites as Catbells and Grisedale Pike, they occupy an oval area beneath the Buttermere and Borrowdale valley systems. The North Western Fells are ch ...
occupy the area between the rivers Derwent and Cocker, a broadly oval swathe of hilly country, elongated on a north–south axis. Two roads cross from east to west, dividing the fells into three convenient groups. The central sector, rising between
Whinlatter Pass and
Newlands Pass, includes Causey Pike. The highest ground in the North Western Fells is an east–west ridge in this central sector, beginning with
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.
Grasmoor is disti ...
above
Crummock Water and then gradually descending eastwards over
Crag Hill
Crag Hill is a mountain in the North Western part of the English Lake District. It was formerly known as Eel Crag; however, the Ordnance Survey now marks Eel Crag as referring to the northern crags of the fell.
It is not to be confused with an ...
,
Sail,
Scar Crags and Causey Pike.
Causey Pike is separated from
Barrow
Barrow may refer to:
Places
England
* Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria
** Borough of Barrow-in-Furness, local authority encompassing the wider area
** Barrow and Furness (UK Parliament constituency)
* Barrow, Cheshire
* Barrow, Gloucestershire
* Barro ...
and
Outerside
Outerside is a fell in the Lake District in Cumbria, England. It is located 6 kilometres west of Keswick in the north western part of the national park and is a smaller member of the Coledale group of fells with a height of 568 metre ...
to the north by Stonycroft Gill. Southward across Rigg Beck is
Ard Crags. Causey Pike has a long blunt-ended shoulder running eastward to the Newlands Valley, dropping steeply from its terminus at
Rowling End.
Geology
The entire hill is formed from
Ordovician
The Ordovician ( ) is a geologic period and system, the second of six periods of the Paleozoic Era. The Ordovician spans 41.6 million years from the end of the Cambrian Period million years ago (Mya) to the start of the Silurian Period Mya. ...
-age rocks assigned to the
Skiddaw Group. The summit ridge and northern slopes are composed of the laminated
mudstone and
siltstone
Siltstone, also known as aleurolite, is a clastic sedimentary rock that is composed mostly of silt. It is a form of mudrock with a low clay mineral content, which can be distinguished from shale by its lack of fissility.Blatt ''et al.'' 1980, ...
of the Kirkstile Formation, whilst the summit knobble and southern slopes are formed from the Buttermere Formation, an
olistostrome of disrupted, sheared and folded mudstone, siltstone and
sandstone
Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks.
Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates ...
. The eastern spur and Rowling End reveal the large
olistoliths of
greywacke sandstone of the Robinson Member, a sub-unit of the Buttermere Formation.
[British Geological Survey: 1:50,000 series maps, England & Wales Sheet 29 ''Keswick'': BGS (1999)]
Ascents
The direct ascent of the fell is usually started from the Newlands valley at Stonycroft where there is some car parking space; this route is steep at the beginning and the end with an easier section in the middle, the final 20 metres of ascent being a rocky scramble. An easier and longer alternative from the same starting point goes by an old track which used to serve the cobalt mine on the slopes of
Scar Crags, this approaches the fell "from the back" reaching
Sail Pass
Hill passes of the Lake District were originally used by people in one valley travelling to another nearby without having to go many miles around a steep ridge of intervening hills. Historically, in the Lake District of northwest England, trave ...
and then crossing the summit of Scar Crags before attaining Causey Pike. The fell is also part of the horseshoe walk known as the
Coledale Round which is usually started at the village of Braithwaite just west of Keswick (but can also be started in the Newlands Valley) and includes the additional fells of
Grisedale Pike,
Hopegill Head
Hopegill Head is a fell in the English Lake District in Cumbria. It is located nine kilometres (5½ miles) west of the town of Keswick and is well seen from the B5292 road which crosses the Whinlatter Pass.
Topography
Hopegill Head is the ...
,
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.
Grasmoor is disti ...
,
Eel Crag, Sail and Scar Crags. It is a strenuous 11-mile (18-km) ridge walk with over 4000 feet (1200 m) of ascent.
Summit
The summit of the fell is unique: it is a narrow ridge with the highest point being on the "knobble" but with four other smaller bumps of almost equal height further on. The scree slopes around the summit have yielded some
fossil
A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...
s:
trilobites,
trace fossils and
graptolites are found on rare occasions. The view from the summit is extensive with
Derwentwater, the Newlands valley,
Skiddaw
Skiddaw is a mountain in the Lake District National Park in England. Its summit is the sixth-highest in England. It lies just north of the town of Keswick, Cumbria, and dominates the skyline in this part of the northern lakes. It is the ...
,
Blencathra
Blencathra, also known as Saddleback, is one of the most northerly hills in the English Lake District. It has six separate fell tops, of which the highest is the Hallsfell Top at 2,848 feet (868 metres).
Name
For many years, Ordnance S ...
and the
Helvellyn range seen very well.
Fell race
There is an annual Causey Pike fell race which takes place in March; it starts and finishes in the Newlands Valley and has a distance of 4.5 miles (7 km) with 542 metres (1780 ft) of climbing. The 2005 race was won in a time of 32 minutes 51 seconds.
References
*A Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells,The North Western Fells:Alfred Wainwright:
*Complete Lakeland Fells, Bill Birkett,
{{North Western Fells
Fells of the Lake District
Hewitts of England
Nuttalls