Western Fells

The Western Fells are a group of hills in the English Lake District. Centred on Great Gable they occupy a triangular area between Buttermere and Wasdale. The Western Fells are characterised by high ridges and an abundance of naked rock.

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 Western Fells are one of these divisions, covered by volume 7 of Wainwright's work.

The Western Fells rise gradually from the Cumbrian coastal plain, Wainwright excluding some of the lower specimens nearest the sea. He drew a complex and arbitrary dividing line part way between his intended border at the extremity of the major lakes, and the more distant boundary of the National Park. The few hills thus excluded were covered later in his supplementary volume, The Outlying Fells of Lakeland (1974). The inner boundary is by contrast well-defined. The River Cocker runs along the north eastern edge and Wasdale to the south east. In the acute angle where these valleys converge, border duties are taken up by headwaters of Borrowdale, closing the gap between Honister Pass and Sty Head. Honister connects to the North Western Fells and Sty Head to the Southern.

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