Castle Crag
| Castle Crag | |
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Castle Crag from the south, with Derwent Water in the background
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| Highest point | |
| Elevation | 290 m (950 ft) |
| Prominence | c. 75 m |
| Parent peak | High Spy |
| Listing | Wainwright |
| Coordinates | 54°31′58″N 3°09′43″W / 54.53278°N 3.16207°WCoordinates: 54°31′58″N 3°09′43″W / 54.53278°N 3.16207°W |
| Geography | |
 Castle Crag
Location in Lake District, UK
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| Location | Cumbria, England |
| Parent range | Lake District, North Western Fells |
| OS grid | NY249159 |
| Topo map | OS Landranger 89, 90, Explorer OL4 |
Castle Crag is a hill in the North Western Fells of the English Lake District. It is the smallest hill included in Alfred Wainwright's influential Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells, the only Wainwright below 1,000 feet (300 m).
Wainwright accorded Castle Crag the status of a separate fell because it "is so magnificently independent, so ruggedly individual, so aggressively unashamed of its lack of inches, that less than justice would be done by relegating it to a paragraph in the High Spy chapter." Subsequent guidebooks have not always agreed: Castle Crag is one of only two Wainwrights not included in Bill Birkett's Complete Lakeland Fells.
The fell has an impressive appearance, a rugged height apparently blocking the valley of Borrowdale, which is squeezed between Castle Crag and Grange Fell, its neighbour on the other side. This narrow gorge known as the 'Jaws of Borrowdale', and is prominent in views from Keswick and Derwentwater.
High Spy, the parent fell, forms part of the north-south ridge between Borrowdale and the Newlands Valley. The rough spur of Low Scawdel (1,709 ft) runs out due east from the summit, breaking steeply over Goat Crag and then falling to Broadslack Gill. This small tributary of the River Derwent separates High Spy from Castle Crag.
The wooded height of Castle Crag rises between Broadslack Gill and the Derwent, the two streams meeting to the north beneath the outlying knoll of Low Hows. It has steep faces on all sides except the south, where a low ridge runs out and then swings west around the head of Broadslack Gill. A narrow col here provides the topographic link to High Spy.
The Derwentwater fault runs along the valley of Broadslack Gill, the higher ground to the north west being mainly composed of the Birker Fell Formation. These are plagioclase-phyric andesite lavas and subordinate sills. By contrast Castle Crag shows outcropping of the Eagle Crag Member, a mixture of siltstone, sandstone, conglomerate and tuff with frequent andesite sills.
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Wikipedia