Buckbarrow 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 o ...
in the English
Lake District
The Lake District, also known as the Lakes or Lakeland, is a mountainous region in North West England. A popular holiday destination, it is famous for its lakes, forests, and mountains (or ''fells''), and its associations with William Wordswor ...
overlooking the western end of
Wastwater
Wast Water or Wastwater () is a lake located in Wasdale, a valley in the western part of the Lake District National Park, England. The lake is almost long and more than wide. It is a glacial lake, formed in a glacially 'over-deepened' valley ...
. It is featured in
Alfred Wainwright
Alfred Wainwright MBE (17 January 1907 – 20 January 1991), who preferred to be known as A. Wainwright or A.W., was a British fellwalker, guidebook author and illustrator. His seven-volume ''Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells'', published ...
’s ''
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 ...
'' and is given a height of 1,410 ft approximately; however, the
Ordnance Survey
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and other guidebooks now give an altitude of 423 m (1,388 ft). The fell’s name means ‘The hill of the buck or goat’. It is derived either from the
Old English
Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...
word ''bucc'' meaning buck or the
Old Norse
Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and t ...
word ''bokki'' meaning a male goat.
Topography
The
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.
Partitio ...
occupy a triangular sector of the Lake District, bordered by the River Cocker to the north east and
Wasdale
Wasdale () is a valley and civil parish in the western part of the Lake District National Park in Cumbria, England. The River Irt flows through the valley to its estuary at Ravenglass. A large part of the main valley floor is occupied by Wastwa ...
to the south-east. Westwards the hills diminish toward the coastal plain of Cumberland. At the central hub of the high country are
Great Gable
Great Gable is a mountain in the Lake District, United Kingdom. It is named after its appearance as a pyramid from Wasdale, though it is dome-shaped from most other directions. It is one of the most popular of the Lakeland fells, and there are ...
and its satellites, while two principal ridges fan out on either flank of
Ennerdale, the western fells in effect being a great horseshoe around this long, wild valley.
Alfred Wainwright
Alfred Wainwright MBE (17 January 1907 – 20 January 1991), who preferred to be known as A. Wainwright or A.W., was a British fellwalker, guidebook author and illustrator. His seven-volume ''Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells'', published ...
: ''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 ...
, Volume 7 The Western Fells'': Westmorland Gazette (1966): Buckbarrow is an outlier of the southern branch of the horseshoe.
Buckbarrow is not really a separate hill, but just the craggy end of the southern ridge of the neighbouring fell of
Seatallan
Seatallan is a mountain in the western part of the English Lake District. It is rounded, grassy and fairly unassuming, occupying a large amount of land. However, it is classed as a Marilyn because of the low elevation of the col connecting it t ...
, which reaches a height of 692 m (2,270 ft). Seatallan itself lies to the south of the main ridge, connecting to
Haycock across the Pots of Ashness depression.
Seatallan's south-western ridge falls gently at first across the broad green expanse of Nether Wasdale Common, finally narrowing to a point at Cat Bields (500 m or 1,640 ft), a mile from the summit. From here the slope continues in the same direction to the Greendale-
Gosforth
Gosforth is a suburb of the city and metropolitan borough of Newcastle upon Tyne, England. It constituted a separate Urban district (Great Britain and Ireland), urban district from 1895 until 1974 before officially merging with the city of New ...
road, its progress only briefly interrupted by the few desultory rocks of Gray Crag. A smaller spur runs out south from Cat Bields, only resolving into a definite ridge some way down the slope at Glade How (435 m or 1,425 ft). This
cairn
A cairn is a man-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 gd, càrn (plural ).
Cairns have been and are used for a broad variety of purposes. In prehis ...
ed top is recognised as a summit by some guidebooks.
[Bill Birkett: Complete Lakeland Fells: Collins Willow (1994): ] A little to the south of Glade How the spur ends in a wall of crag, dropping 900 ft to the road below. This is Buckbarrow.
Buckbarrow's crags face the
Wastwater Screes across the foot of the lake, aping their more famous neighbours in miniature. About three quarters of a mile in length, the principal features of Buckbarrow's southern face are Long Crag, Pike Crag, Bull Crag and Broad Crag. The western boundary is formed by Gill Beck, flowing between Buckbarrow and the main ridge of Seatallan. To the east the crags overlook Greendale Gill, the boundary with
Middle Fell
Middle Fell is a hill or fell in the English Lake District. It is a satellite of Seatallan standing above the northern shore of Wastwater. Middle Fell can be climbed from Greendale near the foot of Wastwater, and a fine view of the lake backed b ...
.
Geology
The northern parts of Buckbarrow, blending into the slopes of Seatallan, are overlain by drift deposits, much
peat
Peat (), also known as turf (), is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation or organic matter. It is unique to natural areas called peatlands, bogs, mires, moors, or muskegs. The peatland ecosystem covers and is the most efficien ...
being in evidence around Glade How. The summit area shows outcropping of the Birker Fell Formation, an undivided sequence of generally
plagioclase
Plagioclase is a series of tectosilicate (framework silicate) minerals within the feldspar group. Rather than referring to a particular mineral with a specific chemical composition, plagioclase is a continuous solid solution series, more prope ...
-phyric
andesite
Andesite () is a volcanic rock of intermediate composition. In a general sense, it is the intermediate type between silica-poor basalt and silica-rich rhyolite. It is fine-grained (aphanitic) to porphyritic in texture, and is composed predomi ...
lava
Lava is molten or partially molten rock (magma) that has been expelled from the interior of a terrestrial planet (such as Earth) or a moon onto its surface. Lava may be erupted at a volcano or through a fracture in the crust, on land or un ...
s with subordinate sills. At the bottom of the slope are examples of granophyric microgranite, representative of the Ennerdale Intrusion. Dykes of
basalt
Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...
and
dolerite
Diabase (), also called dolerite () or microgabbro,
is a mafic, holocrystalline, subvolcanic rock equivalent to volcanic basalt or plutonic gabbro. Diabase dikes and sills are typically shallow intrusive bodies and often exhibit fine-grained ...
run through both formations.
British Geological Survey
The British Geological Survey (BGS) is a partly publicly funded body which aims to advance geoscientific knowledge of the United Kingdom landmass and its continental shelf by means of systematic surveying, monitoring and research.
The BGS h ...
: 1:50,000 series maps: England & Wales Sheet 38: BGS (1998)
Summit
The nearest to an actual summit given the limited
prominence
In topography, prominence (also referred to as autonomous height, relative height, and shoulder drop in US English, and drop or relative height in British English) measures the height of a mountain or hill's summit relative to the lowest contou ...
is a rocky mound set back from the rim of crags. Much finer views can be obtained from the lower rocky knoll which stands above Pike Crag.
Buckbarrow gives good views of Wast Water as well as the Wast Water Screes. The full length of the lake can be seen from Pike Crag, along with a fine view of Great Gable and the
Scafells
Image:Annotated Scafell range.jpg, 300px, The Scafell range as seen looking west from Crinkle Crags. (Interactive labels.)
rect 23 372 252 419 Slight Side (762m)
rect 173 794 560 834 Scafell East Buttress
rect 707 787 893 861 Esk Crag or But ...
.
Ascents
The fell is usually climbed from the minor road which runs along the base of the hill. From here Buckbarrow looks quite formidable and the crags are a deterrent to a direct ascent; however, all danger can be bypassed by starting the climb at the more westerly point of Harrow Head farm and following Gill Beck up to a height of around 350 m (1,150 ft) before bearing north easterly to the highest point above the crags. An alternative is to climb from Greendale, via Greendale Gill and Tongues Gills. Buckbarrow can also be
bagged almost as an afterthought as the walker descends from Seatallan.
Buckbarrow's formidable crags are a popular rock climbing venue.
References
{{Western Fells
Fells of the Lake District
Borough of Copeland