Northern Fells

The Northern Fells are a mountain range in the English Lake District. Including Skiddaw, they occupy a wide area to the north of Keswick. Smooth sweeping slopes predominate with a minimum of tarns or crags. Blencathra in the south east of the group is the principal exception to this trend.

The Lake District is a National Park in the north west of the country which, in addition to its lakes, contains a complex range of hills. These are known locally as fells and range from low hills to the highest ground in England. Hundreds of tops exist and many writers have attempted to draw up definitive lists. In doing so the compilers frequently divide the range into smaller areas to aid their description.

The most influential of all such authors was Alfred Wainwright whose Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells series has sold in excess of 2 million copies, being in print continuously since the first volume was published in 1952. Wainwright divided the fells into seven geographical areas, each surrounded by valleys and low passes. While any such division must be arbitrary- and later writers have deviated to a greater or lesser extent from this blueprint- Wainwright's sevenfold division remains the best known partitioning of the fells into 'sub ranges', each with its own characteristics. The Northern Fells are one of these divisions, covered by volume 5 of Wainwright's work.

The Northern Fells form a self-contained unit, quite remote from the other ranges. The western boundary is formed by the course of the River Derwent north of Keswick and the southern perimeter by the River Greta, one of its principal feeders. The River Caldew bounds the eastern edge of the group, flowing away toward Carlisle. At Caldbeck the Calder is joined by the Whelpo Beck which drains many of the northern slopes. Only on the east, between the headwaters of the Greta and Caldew, does a bridge of higher ground strike out to connect with the rest of Lakeland, a long ridge curving southward to connect with Great Mell Fell in the Eastern Fells. This ridge, whilst significant topographically, is in many places unnoticed on the ground. The deep trough of Bassenthwaite wards off the North Western Fells, while the Central Fells rise beyond Keswick and the Greta.

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Wikipedia