Fair Snape Fell

Fair Snape Fell is one of the larger hills in the

Forest of Bowland The Forest of Bowland, also known as the Bowland Fells and formerly the Chase of Bowland, is an area of gritstone fells, deep valleys and peat moorland, mostly in north-east Lancashire, England, with a small part in North Yorkshire (however ro ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

, England. It occupies a position in the very south of the main range of fells, alongside and just to the north of

Parlick Parlick (also known as Parlick Pike) is an approximately cone-shaped steep-sided hill at the extreme south of the main range of Bowland fells in Lancashire, England. Its bog-free sides make it more popular with walkers than the shallow boggy h ...

, to which it is joined by a ridge. The main paths approach the summit from Parlick in the south, Saddle Fell in the east and

Bleasdale Bleasdale is a village and civil parish in the Wyre district of Lancashire, England, in the Forest of Bowland Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The two sources of the River Brock lie within the parish. According to the 2001 census, it had a ...

in the valley to the west. The Saddle Fell approach is as boggy as the hills to the north. The summit is covered in

grass Poaceae () or Gramineae () is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos and the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivated in lawns an ...

and

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 ...

groughs. A

trig point A triangulation station, also known as a trigonometrical point, and sometimes informally as a trig, is a fixed surveying station, used in geodetic surveying and other surveying projects in its vicinity. The nomenclature varies regionally: they a ...

and large

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 ...

occupy the top of the western

escarpment An escarpment is a steep slope or long cliff that forms as a result of faulting or erosion and separates two relatively level areas having different elevations. The terms ''scarp'' and ''scarp face'' are often used interchangeably with ''escar ...

, with the highest point being about to the north-east. The word ''snape'' means ‘pasture’; thus Fair Snape Fell means ‘fell of the fair (beautiful) pasture’. Considerable areas of the Bowland fells were used for military training during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

and there are still unexploded bombs in some areas, including nearby Wolf Fell. Image:FairSnapeFell.jpg, Fair Snape Fell (left) and Parlick (right) viewed from the west Image:Parlick from Fair Snape Fell 7948.jpg, View from the trig point on Fair Snape Fell, looking down on Parlick. Marilyns of England Hills of the Forest of Bowland Mountains and hills of Lancashire Geography of the Borough of Wyre Geography of Ribble Valley {{Lancashire-geo-stub