Causey Pike 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 situated in the Newlands Valley, south-west of the town of Keswick. Even though it has a modest height of it is one of the most distinctive fells when viewed from the

Derwent Water Derwentwater, or Derwent Water, is a lake in the Lake District in North West England, immediately south of Keswick. It is in the unitary authority of Cumberland within the ceremonial county of Cumbria. It is the third largest lake by area, a ...

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 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 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 part of the Cumbrian Mountains in the Lake District of England. Including such favourites as Catbells and Grisedale Pike, they occupy an oval area beneath the Buttermere and Borrowdale valley systems. The North We ...

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 The Whinlatter Pass is a mountain pass in the Lake District in Cumbria, England. It is located on the B5292 road linking Braithwaite, to the west of Keswick, with High Lorton to the south of Cockermouth. To the north the pass is flanked ...

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, Cumbria, Lorton, Braithwaite and Buttermere, and overlooks Crummock Water. Grasm ...

above

Crummock Water Crummock Water is a lake in the Lake District in North West England. It is long, wide, deep, and has an area of . The lake's primary inflow is Buttermere Dubs, itself the outflow of Buttermere, and its outflow is the River Cocker, which mee ...

and then gradually descending eastwards over Crag Hill,

Sail A sail is a tensile structure, which is made from fabric or other membrane materials, that uses wind power to propel sailing craft, including sailing ships, sailboats, windsurfers, ice boats, and even sail-powered land vehicles. Sails may b ...

, Scar Crags and Causey Pike. Causey Pike is separated from Barrow and Outerside to the north by Stonycroft Gill. Southward across Rigg Beck is

Ard Crags Ard Crags is a fell in the Lake District in Cumbria, England, it is situated in the Newlands Valley just off the minor road between Keswick and Buttermere. The Ordnance Survey officially records the fell's altitude at , considerably more than t ...

. 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 (geology), system, the second of six periods of the Paleozoic Era (geology), Era, and the second of twelve periods of the Phanerozoic Eon (geology), Eon. The Ordovician spans 41.6 million years f ...

-age rocks assigned to the

Skiddaw Group The Skiddaw Group is a group (stratigraphy), group of sedimentary rock formations named after the mountain Skiddaw in the England, English Lake District. The rocks are almost wholly Ordovician in age (Tremadocian, Tremadoc through Arenig to Ord ...

. The summit ridge and northern slopes are composed of the laminated

mudstone Mudstone, a type of mudrock, is a fine-grained sedimentary rock whose original constituents were clays or muds. Mudstone is distinguished from ''shale'' by its lack of fissility.Blatt, H., and R.J. Tracy, 1996, ''Petrology.'' New York, New York, ...

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. Although its permeabil ...

of the Kirkstile Formation, whilst the summit knobble and southern slopes are formed from the Buttermere Formation, an

olistostrome An olistostrome is a sedimentary deposit composed of a chaotic mass of heterogeneous material, such as blocks and mud, known as olistoliths, that accumulates as a semifluid body by submarine (geology), submarine gravity sliding or Slump (geology ...

of disrupted, sheared and folded mudstone, siltstone and

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

. The eastern spur and Rowling End reveal the large olistoliths of

greywacke Greywacke or graywacke ( ) is a variety of sandstone generally characterized by its hardness (6–7 on Mohs scale), dark color, and Sorting (sediment), poorly sorted angular grains of quartz, feldspar, and small rock fragments or sand-size Lith ...

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 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 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 west of the town of Keswick, Cumbria, Keswick and is well seen from the B5292 road which crosses the Whinlatter Pass. Topography Hopegill Head is the middle fell ...

, Eel Crag, Sail and Scar Crags. It is a strenuous ridge walk with over 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 preserve ...

trilobite Trilobites (; meaning "three-lobed entities") are extinction, extinct marine arthropods that form the class (biology), class Trilobita. One of the earliest groups of arthropods to appear in the fossil record, trilobites were among the most succ ...

trace fossil A trace fossil, also called an ichnofossil (; ), is a fossil record of biological activity by lifeforms, but not the preserved remains of the organism itself. Trace fossils contrast with body fossils, which are the fossilized remains of part ...

s and

graptolite Graptolites are a group of colonial animals, members of the subclass Graptolithina within the class Pterobranchia. These filter-feeding organisms are known chiefly from fossils found from the Middle Cambrian ( Miaolingian, Wuliuan) through t ...

s are found on rare occasions. The view from the summit is extensive with

Derwentwater Derwentwater, or Derwent Water, is a lake in the Lake District in North West England, immediately south of Keswick, Cumbria, Keswick. It is in the unitary authority of Cumberland (unitary authority), Cumberland within the ceremonial county of ...

, the Newlands valley,

Skiddaw Skiddaw is a mountain in the Lake District National Park in England. Its summit is traditionally considered to be the List of Wainwrights, fourth-highest peak but depending on what topographic prominence is thought to be significant is also ...

Blencathra Blencathra, also known as Saddleback, is one of the most northerly of the Cumbrian Mountains, in the English Lake District. It has six separate fell tops, of which the highest is the Hallsfell Top at . Name For many years, Ordnance Surv ...

and the

Helvellyn range The Helvellyn range is the name given to a part of the Eastern Fells in the English Lake District, "fell" being the local word for "hill". The name comes from Helvellyn, the highest summit of the group. The Helvellyn range forms a ridge exte ...

seen very well.

Protection

Causey Pike is within Buttermere Fells Site of Special Scientific Interest. The land surface of Causey Pike mountain is owned by the

National Trust The National Trust () is a heritage and nature conservation charity and membership organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Trust was founded in 1895 by Octavia Hill, Sir Robert Hunter and Hardwicke Rawnsley to "promote the ...

. An area of unnamed woodland clings to the hillside on the southern (Rigg Beck) side of the hill. It lies at an height of around 400 metres and is 5.5 hectares (13.59 acres) in size.Woodland Trust
/ref>

Fell race

There is an annual Causey Pike fell race which takes place in March; it starts and finishes at

Stair Stairs are a structure designed to bridge a large vertical distance between lower and higher levels by dividing it into smaller vertical distances. This is achieved as a diagonal series of horizontal platforms called steps which enable passage ...

in the Newlands Valley and has a distance of with of climbing.. It climbs the fell directly via Ellas Crag and returns via the mine track in Stonycroft Gill. The course record for men is held by Simon Booth at 32 minutes and 14 seconds, while the women's record is held by Lizzie Adams at 37 minutes and 33 seconds.Keswick Athletic Club
/ref>

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