Fair Snape Fell is one of the larger hills in the

Forest of Bowland The Forest of Bowland, also known as the Bowland Fells and formerly the Chase of Bowland, is an area of gritstone fells, deep valleys and peat moorland, mostly in north-east Lancashire, England, with a small part in North Yorkshire (however ro ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

, England. It reaches with 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 and is classed as a Marilyn. It occupies a position in the very south of the main range of fells, alongside and just to the north of Parlick, to which it is joined by a ridge. The main paths approach the summit from Parlick in the south, Saddle Fell in the east and

Bleasdale Bleasdale is a village and civil parish in the Wyre district of Lancashire, England, in the Forest of Bowland Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The two sources of the River Brock lie within the parish. According to the 2001 census, it had a ...

in the valley to the west. The Saddle Fell approach is as boggy as the hills to the north. The summit is covered in

grass Poaceae ( ), also called Gramineae ( ), is a large and nearly ubiquitous family (biology), family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos, the grasses of natural grassland and spe ...

and

peat Peat is an accumulation of partially Decomposition, decayed vegetation or organic matter. It is unique to natural areas called peatlands, bogs, mires, Moorland, moors, or muskegs. ''Sphagnum'' moss, also called peat moss, is one of the most ...

groughs. A

trig point A triangulation station, also known as a trigonometrical point, and sometimes informally as a trig, is a fixed surveying station, used in geodetic surveying and other surveying projects in its vicinity. The station is usually set up by a map ...

and large

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 ...

occupy the top of the western

escarpment An escarpment is a steep slope or long cliff that forms as a result of faulting or erosion and separates two relatively level areas having different elevations. Due to the similarity, the term '' scarp'' may mistakenly be incorrectly used inte ...

, with the highest point being about to the north-east. The word ''snape'' means "pasture"; thus Fair Snape Fell means "fell of the fair (beautiful) pasture". Considerable areas of the Bowland fells were used for military training during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

and there are still unexploded bombs in some areas, including nearby Wolf Fell. Image:FairSnapeFell.jpg, Fair Snape Fell (left) and Parlick (right) viewed from the west Image:Parlick from Fair Snape Fell 7948.jpg, View from the trig point on Fair Snape Fell, looking down on Parlick.

References

Marilyns of England Hills of the Forest of Bowland Mountains and hills of Lancashire Geography of the Borough of Wyre Geography of Ribble Valley {{Lancashire-geo-stub