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Wandope (also known as ''Wanlope''
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):
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 north-western area 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 lies to the east of
Crummock Water Crummock Water is a lake in the Lake District in North West England. It is long, wide, deep, and has an area of . The lake's primary inflow is Buttermere Dubs, itself the outflow of Buttermere, and its outflow is the River Cocker, which mee ...
and south of
Crag Hill Crag Hill is a mountain in the North Western part of the English Lake District. It was formerly known as Eel Crag; however, the Ordnance Survey now marks Eel Crag as referring to the northern crags of the fell. It is not to be confused with ano ...
. From the summit there are excellent panoramas of the
Sca Fell Scafell ( or ; also spelled Sca Fell, previously Scawfell) is a mountain in the Lake District region of Cumbria, England. It has a height of , making it the second-highest mountain in England after its neighbour, Scafell Pike, from which it ...
and
High Stile High Stile is a mountain in the western part of the Lake District in North West England. It is the eleventh-highest English Marilyn, standing high, and has a relative height of . It is the highest in the range of fells extending north-west ...
ranges.


Topography

The
North Western Fells The North Western Fells are a part of the Cumbrian Mountains in the Lake District of England. Including such favourites as Catbells and Grisedale Pike, they occupy an oval area beneath the Buttermere and Borrowdale valley systems. The North We ...
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 The Whinlatter Pass is a mountain pass in the Lake District in Cumbria, England. It is located on the B5292 road linking Braithwaite, to the west of Keswick, with High Lorton to the south of Cockermouth. To the north the pass is flanked ...
and
Newlands Pass The Newlands Pass, also known as Newlands Hause, is a mountain pass in the Lake District in Cumbria, England. It is located on an unclassified road linking the Newlands Valley, to the west of Keswick and Derwent Water, with the village of Bu ...
, includes Wandope. 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 Crummock Water is a lake in the Lake District in North West England. It is long, wide, deep, and has an area of . The lake's primary inflow is Buttermere Dubs, itself the outflow of Buttermere, and its outflow is the River Cocker, which mee ...
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 Scar Crags is a fell in the north western part of the English Lake District in the county of Cumbria. It is one of the Coledale group of fells situated south west of Keswick and reaches a height of . Topography The fell is part of the long ri ...
and
Causey Pike Causey Pike is a fell in the English Lake District. It is situated in the Newlands Valley, south-west of the town of Keswick. Even though it has a modest height of it is one of the most distinctive fells when viewed from the Derwent Water a ...
. Grasmoor has the greatest elevation, but Crag Hill stands at the hub of the range. It sends out a subsidiary ridge to the south west, stepping down over Wandope and
Whiteless Pike Whiteless Pike, high, is a fell in the north-western English Lake District. It stands immediately east of Crummock Water and forms a pyramid shape when viewed from Rannerdale. In his celebrated guide to the Lakeland fells, A Wainwright calle ...
toward Buttermere village. Wandope is not prominent in views from below and from most directions appears subservient to its higher neighbours. The connection to Crag Hill is the broad plateau of Wandope Moss, sloping down easily to the west. On the opposite side is the striking feature of Addacomb Hole. This symmetrical hanging valley resembles a half crater, its headwall being high. The ridge south westward from Wandope is divided into two by Third Gill. The eastern branch is a short blunt ended spur, but the western arm narrows to the fine airy ridge of Whiteless Edge. This makes straight for the summit of Whiteless Pike across the
col A col is the lowest point on a mountain ridge between two peaks; a mountain pass or saddle. COL, CoL or col may also refer to: Computers * Caldera OpenLinux, a defunct Linux distribution * , an HTML element specifying a column * A collision sig ...
of Saddle Gate (). The flanks of the ridge are steep and rough throughout, but with more exposed rock to the east. All of the run-off from the fell finds its way ultimately to Crummock Water, the Derwent-Cocker watershed ignoring Wandope in favour of the onward connection from Crag Hill to
Ard Crags Ard Crags is a fell in the Lake District in Cumbria, England, it is situated in the Newlands Valley just off the minor road between Keswick and Buttermere. The Ordnance Survey officially records the fell's altitude at , considerably more than t ...
. Sail Beck carries the water from the south and east, running out from between
Knott Rigg Knott Rigg is a fell at the head of the Newlands Valley in the English Lake District. It is situated some south west of Keswick and has a modest height of . Its name is derived from the Old English language and means ''“hill on a knobbly r ...
and Whiteless Pike into Buttermere village. Addacomb Beck and Third Gill are the tributaries which mark the northern and southern boundaries of Wandope on this flank. To the north and west of the fell is Rannerdale Beck, disgorging its flow direct into the centre section of the lake.


Geology

The summit areas of Wandope are composed of the
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 ...
Kirkstile Formation. This is the typical rock 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 ...
fells and 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 ...
. Beneath this are the
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 ...
turbidites of the Loweswater Formation. The Causey Pike Fault runs across the southern flanks of the fell, beyond which are the rocks of the Buttermere Formation.British Geological Survey: 1:50,000 series maps, ''England & Wales Sheet 29'': BGS (1999)


Summit

A small
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 ...
marks the summit on a gentle grassy dome, a few yards in from the fall into Addacomb Hole. The view north is blocked by Grasmoor and Crag Hill, but a glorious mountain view extends in all other directions. The
Scafells The Scafells, or Scafell Massif, are a range of fells in the Cumbrian Mountains of England, made up of the remains of a caldera volcano. Fells in the range include Broad Crag, Ill Crag, Scafell, and Scafell Pike, England's tallest mountain. G ...
are perhaps the highlight from this vantage point.


Ascents

Buttermere is the obvious starting point for climbing Wandope, and several routes are available. Sail Beck and then Third Gill can be followed to give a toehold on the shorter eastern branch of the south west ridge. Alternatively Sail Beck can be followed further up the valley until Addacomb Beck is reached. Above this point a fine ridge can be seen, skirting the southern rim of Addacomb Hole. Indirect routes are also popular, and Wandope can either be added to the traverse of the Grasmoor-Causey Pike ridge, or taken on a circuit of Rannerdale.Bill Birkett: ''Complete Lakeland Fells'': Collins Willow (1994):


References

{{North Western Fells Hewitts of England Fells of the Lake District Nuttalls Buttermere, Cumbria (village)