Sour Howes is a small

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 five kilometres east of

Ambleside Ambleside is a town in the civil parish of Lakes and the Westmorland and Furness district of Cumbria, England. Within the boundaries of the historic county of Westmorland and located in the Lake District National Park, the town sits at the ...

, between the Troutbeck and

Kentmere Kentmere is a valley, village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Lake District National Park, a few miles from Kendal in the Westmorland and Furness district of Cumbria, England. Historic counties of England, Historically in We ...

valleys and is one of the two separate fells on Applethwaite Common (the other being Sallows).

Topography

Sour Howes, which reaches a height of 483 m (1,585 ft) is mostly grassy although heather grows on the eastern slopes, a high

dry stone Dry stone, sometimes called drystack or, in Scotland, drystane, is a building method by which structures are constructed from stones without any mortar to bind them together. A certain amount of binding is obtained through the use of carefully ...

wall crosses the top and links with the neighbouring fell of Sallows, which lies just over a kilometre to the north east, and with Sour Howe’s subsidiary top of Capple Howe (445 m, 1,460 ft) which is located 600 metres to the south east. The fells western flank falls away steeply to the Troutbeck valley, this slope is traversed lower down by the Dubbs Road

bridleway A bridle path, also bridleway, equestrian trail, horse riding path, ride, bridle road, or horse trail, is a trail or a thoroughfare that is used by people riding on horses. Trails originally created for use by horses often now serve a wider ...

which goes north joining the track which crosses the

Garburn Pass Hill passes of the Lake District were originally used by people in one valley travelling to another nearby without having to go many miles around a steep ridge of intervening hills. Historically, in the Lake District of northwest England, trave ...

(

Restricted Byway A byway in the United Kingdom is a track, often rural, which is too minor to be called a road. These routes are often unsurfaced, typically having the appearance of ' green lanes'. Despite this, it is legal (but may not be physically possible) t ...

), on its way to Kentmere. The disused and now wooded Applethwaite quarry stands on these western slope alongside the Garburn track, it is quite substantial and an interesting place to explore. On its eastern side Sour Howes drops more gently to the Kentmere valley with the stream of Park Beck draining the fell and being a tributary of the

River Kent The River Kent is a short river in the county of Cumbria in England. It originates in hills surrounding Kentmere, and flows for around 20 miles (32 km) into the north of Morecambe Bay. The upper reaches and the western bank of the estuary ...

. There are some well made

grouse Grouse are a group of birds from the order (biology), order Galliformes, in the family (biology), family Phasianidae. Grouse are presently assigned to the Tribe (biology), tribe Tetraonini (formerly the subfamily Tetraoninae and the family Tetr ...

butts amongst the heather on these eastern slopes.

Ascents

Sour Howes can be ascended from the Troutbeck or Kentmere valleys, its ascent can be combined with the adjacent fell of Sallows and also with a visit to the more stirring

Yoke A yoke is a wooden beam used between a pair of oxen or other animals to enable them to pull together on a load when working in pairs, as oxen usually do; some yokes are fitted to individual animals. There are several types of yoke, used in dif ...

to Thornthwaite Crag ridge to the north. The ascents from either valley utilise the Garburn Pass track to its highest point before going south to the summit following the dry stone wall.

Summit

The top of the fell is a series of grassy knolls with the highest of these marked by a small pile of stones, the view is extremely fine for such a small fell, there is a fine vista of the high mountains to the west, to the south

Windermere Windermere (historically Winder Mere) is a ribbon lake in Cumbria, England, and part of the Lake District. It is the largest lake in England by length, area, and volume, but considerably smaller than the List of lakes and lochs of the United Ki ...

is well seen and beyond that

Morecambe Bay Morecambe Bay is an estuary in north-west England, just to the south of the Lake District National Park. It is the largest expanse of intertidal mudflats and sand in the United Kingdom, covering a total area of . In 1974, the second largest ga ...

References

* A Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells, The Far Eastern Fells, Alfred Wainwright * Complete Lakeland Fells, Bill Birkett, {{Far Eastern Fells Fells of the Lake District