Knott Rigg 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 moor-covered hill. The term is most often employed in Fennoscandia, Iceland, the Isle of Man, pa ...

at the head of the

Newlands Valley The Newlands Valley is in the Lake District National Park in Cumbria, England. It is regarded as one of the most picturesque and quiet valleys in the national park, even though it is situated very close to the popular tourist town of Keswick an ...

in the English Lake District. It is situated some 8.5 kilometres south west of

Keswick Keswick may refer to: Places Australia *Keswick, South Australia, a suburb of Adelaide **Keswick railway station, Adelaide **Adelaide Parklands Terminal (formerly Keswick Rail Terminal) Canada *Keswick, Edmonton, Alberta *Keswick, Ontario * Keswic ...

and has a modest height of 556 metres (1825 feet). Its name is derived from the

Old English language Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th ce ...

and means ''“hill on a knobbly ridge”''. Because of its moderate height, the fell fails to be listed on any significant hill lists but it does merit a separate chapter in

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 ...

’s

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 ...

Topography

Knott Rigg is located on a four kilometre long ridge, which springs from

Rigg Beck Rigg Beck is a minor river of Cumbria in England. Rigg Beck is also the name of a famous dwelling – the Purple House – placed where the Beck crosses the Keskadale road, and which formed an excellent starting point for exploring the fells. So ...

in the Newlands valley midway along its length and runs south westerly to conclude at

Newlands Hause The Newlands Pass, also known as Newlands Hause, is a mountain pass in the English Lake District. It is located on an unclassified road linking the Newlands Valley, to the west of Keswick and Derwent Water, with the village of Buttermere. Th ...

. The ridge also contains the adjoining fell of

Ard Crags Ard Crags is a fell in the Lake District in Cumbria, England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celt ...

which stands 1.5 kilometres north east of Knott Rigg; both fells are usually climbed in combination with each other. Knott Rigg is steep sided, with the western flank falling away to the valley of Sail Beck, while the eastern side descends to the minor road between Keswick and Buttermere in the Newlands valley. The fell is best viewed from Newlands Hause, where it is seen as a sharp conical peak (although the highest point is not in view), or from

Buttermere Buttermere is a lake in the Lake District in North West England. The adjacent village of Buttermere takes its name from the lake. Historically in Cumberland, the lake is now within the county of Cumbria. Owned by the National Trust, it forms ...

, from where a complete picture of the fell is seen (although it is rather distant).

Geology

The Ard Crags ridge is an example of 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 gravity sliding or slumping of the unconsolidated se ...

of disrupted, sheared and folded mudstone,

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, ...

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 ...

. There are minor intrusions of

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the surface of a rocky planet or moon. More than 90% of a ...

on Knott Rigg.British Geological Survey: 1:50,000 series maps, ''England & Wales Sheet 29'': BGS (1999)

Ascents

The easiest ascent of Knott Rigg is started from the car park at Newlands Hause (grid reference ). This gives the advantage of starting at a height of 333 metres, giving an easy vertical ascent of just over 200 metres. An alternative start can be made from further down the Newlands valley, either at Keskadale Farm or Rigg Beck. The latter route goes over Ard Crags first before continuing to Knott Rigg.

Summit

The view from the summit is severely restricted by the surrounding higher hills of the Coledale and Buttermere Fells. However, there is a view to the east in the arc between

Causey Pike 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 ...

and

High Spy High Spy is a fell in the English Lake District it is situated on the ridge that separates the Newlands Valley from Borrowdale, eight kilometres (five miles) south of Keswick. Topography The fell reaches a height of 653 metres (2142&n ...

, which reveals views of the

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 ...

and

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 exten ...

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