Outerside 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

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 ...

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders the Scottish council areas of Dumfries and Galloway and Scottish Borders to the north, Northumberland and County Durham to the east, North Yorkshire to the south-east, Lancash ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. It is located west of Keswick in the north western part 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 ...

and is a smaller member of the Coledale group of fells with a height of . The fell is part of a ridge on the southern side of Coledale which descends from the higher fell of Scar Crags and continues over the neighbouring smaller fell of Barrow before reaching the valley at the village of Braithwaite.

Topography

The North Western Fells 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 and Newlands Pass, includes Outerside. 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 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. Outerside is a satellite of Scar Crags, standing out to the north of the main ridge across the marshy depression of High Moss, . Outerside has a conical profile in most views and its upper slopes are clad predominantly in heather. To the north of the fell runs the valley of Coledale, falling north eastwards to Braithwaite and the floodplain of the Derwent. To the south is the little dale of Stonycroft Gill, havings its birth at High Moss. It flows east between Outerside and Causey Pike to join Newlands Beck at Stair. All of the waters of Outerside thus run to

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 ...

. North east of Outerside the little ridge continues across Low Moss to the subsidiary top of Stile End, . This was not treated as a separate fell 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 ...

: ''

A 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 ...

, Book 6, The North Western Fells'': Westmorland Gazette (1964): although some later guidebooks take a different view.Birkett, Bill: ''Complete Lakeland Fells'': Collins Willow (1994): Beyond is Barrow, a shapely fell overlooking Braithwaite village.

Geology

The rocks of Outerside are representative of the Kirkstile Formation, 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 ...

also typical 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. At High and Low Moss this is overlain by

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 ...

.British Geological Survey: 1:50,000 series maps, ''England & Wales Sheet 29'': BGS (1999) The fell has no history of mining, unlike many of the surrounding hills.Adams, John: ''Mines of the Lake District Fells'': Dalesman (1995)

Ascents

The fell is ascended either from Braithwaite or Stair in the Newlands Valley; the ascent from Stair uses an old mine road up Stoneycroft Gill which crosses the shoulder of the fell at a height of from where the walker then strikes northerly to attain the summit. The direct route from Braithwaite follows Barrow Gill south westerly before going west to the highest point. The fell is often climbed along with the adjoining fell of Barrow to which it is connected by a ridge.

Summit

The view from Outerside's summit

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 ...

is restricted by the higher Coledale fells of Grisedale Pike, Crag Hill and Causey Pike in an arc to the west but there is a good prospect of the Helvellyn range to the east and the

group to the north east, as well as a bird's-eye view directly down into Coledale with the Force Crag mine at its head.

References

{{North Western Fells Fells of the Lake District