Long Side 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 six kilometres north west of Keswick in the northern sector of the national park and is part of the

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 ...

group of fells. Long Side which reaches a height of is located on Skiddaw’s north western ridge, the middle section of which is known as Longside Edge. Strictly speaking the actual summit of the fell is nameless with the name Long Side applying to the south western slope below the summit and is so marked on maps. The fell is often climbed by walkers on their way to the summit of Skiddaw, the route up the north west ridge which passes over Long Side is regarded as being the finest and quietest ascent of that mountain by guide book writers.

Topography

Long Side falls away steeply on its south western flank towards

Bassenthwaite Lake Bassenthwaite Lake is a body of water in the Lake District in North West England, near the town of Keswick. It has an area of , making the fourth largest of the lakes in the region. The lake has a length of approximately long and maximum wid ...

, these slopes are clothed in the

coniferous Conifers () are a group of conifer cone, cone-bearing Spermatophyte, seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the phylum, division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a sin ...

woodlands of Longside Wood below the 400 metre contour. To the north west the fell descends in steep broken crags to the quiet and unfrequented valley of Southerndale. To the north west the fell connects to the adjacent fell of Ullock Pike by a path that runs for along the rim of Longside Edge. To the south east the edge continues from Long Side to link to the higher fell of Carl Side, distant.

Geology

In common with much of the Northern Fells the Kirk Stile Formation of the Skiddaw Group predominates. This is composed of 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 ...

with

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 and is of

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

Ascents

As mentioned ascents of Long Side are often done by walkers en route to Skiddaw, this route starts at the Ravenstone Hotel on the A591 (grid reference ) and climbs Ullock Pike first by its northern ridge before continuing along Longside Edge to the summit of Long Side. The route to Skiddaw keeps on the ridge to Carl Side before ascending a steep loose path through the scree to the summit of Skiddaw. A direct ascent of Long Side is possible from the Old Sawmill car park (grid reference ) on the A591 using the

Forestry Commission The Forestry Commission is a non-ministerial government department responsible for the management of publicly owned forests and the regulation of both public and private forestry in England. The Forestry Commission was previously also respons ...

way marked trail to find a way through Longside Wood to the open fell and then ascending the steep fell side to the summit.

Summit

The summit is marked by a pile of stones. There is a fine view of Bassenthwaite lake. To the east Skiddaw is seen as a massive bulk blocking out much of the view in that direction. File:Ullock Pike and Bass Lake from Long Side.jpg , Looking north from Long Side to Ullock Pike and Bassenthwaite Lake.

References

* A Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells, The Northern Fells, Alfred Wainwright * Complete Lakeland Fells, Bill Birkett, * The Mountains of England and Wales, John and Anne Nuttall {{Northern Fells Hewitts of England Fells of the Lake District Nuttalls