Fellbarrow is a low hill in the north west of 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 not far from the town of

Cockermouth Cockermouth is a market town and civil parish in the Cumberland unitary authority area of Cumbria, England. The name refers to the town's position by the confluence of the River Cocker into the River Derwent. At the 2021 census, the built u ...

, near to

Loweswater Loweswater is one of the smaller lakes in the English Lake District. The village of Loweswater is situated to the east of the lake. Geography The lake is not far from Cockermouth and is also easily reached from elsewhere in West Cumbria. T ...

and can most easily be climbed from Low Lorton or Thackthwaite. From the summit there are views across the Lorton valley to

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 ...

and Whiteside.

Topography

The Western Fells occupy a triangular sector of the Lake District, bordered by the River Cocker to the north east and Wasdale to the south east. Westwards the hills diminish toward the coastal plain of Cumberland. At the central hub of the high country are Great Gable and its satellites, while two principal ridges fan out on either flank of Ennerdale, the western

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 ...

s in effect being a great horseshoe around this long wild valley.

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 ...

: ''A Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells, Volume 7 The Western Fells'': Westmorland Gazette (1966): Fellbarrow and Low Fell stand remote from the end of the northern arm.

is unique amongst the major lakes of the District in emptying toward the centre of the

National Park A national park is a nature park designated for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes because of unparalleled national natural, historic, or cultural significance. It is an area of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that is protecte ...

. Its waters flow out eastwards into Crummock Water before beginning their northward journey as the Cocker. Loweswater does not therefore represent any watershed between the fells on either side of its valley, as might be supposed from a quick glance at the map. A low ridge circuiting the western end of the lake joins Burnbank Fell to Low Fell and Fellbarrow, confirming them as the last outpost of the Western Fells. The two fells form a ridge 2 miles long with the lower Fellbarrow at the northern end.

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 ...

'' was forced to estimate the elevation of Low Fell and considered (although with some doubts) Fellbarrow to be the high point of the ridge. There are a number of intervening tops, in particular Smithy Fell and Sourfoot Fell, which Wainwright decided were satellites of Low Fell, based on the position of the lowest col. That convention is followed here. To the east of Fellbarrow is the Vale of Lorton, through which flows the River Cocker. This is a wide cultivated valley with a number of small parcels of woodland, the settlement of Thackthwaite lying nearest to the fell. To the west are a number of small streams including Mosser Beck and Cat Gill, which also flow northward and ultimately join the Cocker. This is rolling agricultural land on the very edge of the Lake District. North of Fellbarrow is the lower top of Hatteringill Head (1,263 ft), listed in some guidebooksBirkett, Bill: ''Complete Lakeland Fells'': Collins Willow (1994): before the ridge falls away over Whin Fell to a minor road known as Mirk Lane. Fellbarrow also sends out a short ridge north eastward over Broadmoor Hill towards Low Lorton village. The fell is rounded and grassy almost throughout.

Geology

The rocks beneath the summit are of the Loweswater Formation, composed 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 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 ...

turbidities. Beneath this and occasionally outcropping on the eastern flanks are 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 Kirk Stile Formation.British Geological Survey: 1:50,000 series maps, ''England & Wales Sheet 29'': BGS (1999)

Summit

The summit is a gently curving grassy dome, crossed by a fence, and sports an

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 ...

triangulation In trigonometry and geometry, triangulation is the process of determining the location of a point by forming triangles to the point from known points. Applications In surveying Specifically in surveying, triangulation involves only angle m ...

column and a

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 ...

. To west and north are the

Irish Sea The Irish Sea is a body of water that separates the islands of Ireland and Great Britain. It is linked to the Celtic Sea in the south by St George's Channel and to the Inner Seas off the West Coast of Scotland in the north by the North Ch ...

and

Solway Firth The Solway Firth is an inlet on the west coast of Great Britain, forming part of the border between England and Scotland. The firth (a Scottish term for an inlet of the sea) divides Cumbria (including the Solway Plain) from Dumfries and Gallow ...

, seen across the Cumberland plain. To the east is a fine view of the North Western Fells across Lorton- the Whiteside - Grisedale Pike ridge perhaps the highlight- with

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 ...

and Blencathra popping up behind. Further round the view is crowded with fells, the northern wall of Ennerdale seen side on throughout its length and backed by Pillar and the Scafells. No lakes or tarns can be seen.

Ascents

From Low Lorton village a lane leads westwards, joining to the access track to Hatteringill farm. This gives access to the north east ridge above Broadmoor Hill, within easy reach of the summit. An alternative is to climb Low Fell via the drove road from Thackthwaite, either branching north at the ridge or climbing both tops. From the west there are no rights of way on the fell, although it is marked by OS as access land. An approach from the Mosser road is therefore a possibility.

References

{{Western Fells Fells of the Lake District Cumberland (unitary authority)