Hopegill Head is a

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 moor-covered hill. The term is most often employed in Fennoscandia, Iceland, the Isle of Man, pa ...

in the English Lake District in

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in North West England, bordering Scotland. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local government, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. C ...

. It is located nine kilometres (5½ miles) west of the town of Keswick and is well seen from the B5292 road which crosses the Whinlatter Pass.

Topography

Hopegill Head is the middle fell of three fells on a ridge that starts at

Braithwaite Braithwaite is a village in the northern Lake District, in Cumbria, England. Historically in Cumberland, it lies just to the west of Keswick and to the east of the Grisedale Pike ridge, in the Borough of Allerdale. It forms part of the ...

and goes west for eight kilometres to conclude at the northern end of

Crummock Water Crummock Water is a lake in the Lake District in Cumbria, North West England situated between Buttermere to the south and Loweswater to the north. Crummock Water is long, wide and deep. The River Cocker is considered to start at the north of ...

. The other two fells on the ridge are Grisedale Pike and

Whiteside Whiteside may refer to: Places ;Australia * Whiteside, Queensland, suburb in the Moreton Bay Region, Queensland ;Canada * Whiteside, Nova Scotia ;United Kingdom * Whiteside (Lake District), a fell in the west of the English Lake District * White ...

. The fell is often referred to locally as Hobcarton Pike as it stands at the head of Hobcarton Gill. However, the

Ordnance Survey Ordnance Survey (OS) is the national mapping agency for Great Britain. The agency's name indicates its original military purpose (see ordnance and surveying), which was to map Scotland in the wake of the Jacobite rising of 1745. There was a ...

have officially named the fell Hopegill Head on maps after Hope Gill, which is another valley that goes north-west from the summit. Hopegill Head reaches a height of 770 metres (2526 feet) and has two subsidiary summits, Ladyside Pike (703 metres / 2306 feet) and Sand Hill (756 metres / 2480 feet) both of which have Nuttall status. Hopegill Head’s most striking feature is the 130-metre-high (417-foot-high) cliff of Hobcarton Crag, which drops precipitously to Hobcarton Gill on the fell's north east side. These cliffs are unsuitable for conventional rock climbing because they are made of crumbly

Skiddaw Slate Skiddaw slate is an early Ordovician metamorphosed sedimentary rock, as first identified on the slopes of Skiddaw in the English Lake District. The base of this series is unknown. The thickness could, therefore, amount to several thousand feet of ...

but they do provide good winter climbing with the best known routes being Thompson’s Chimney and Cave Route. The crags, which are owned by the

National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...

, are the only location in England of Viscaria alpina, the red alpine catchfly.

Geology

The laminated mudstone and siltstone of the Kirkstile Formation predominated, with the underlying

greywacke Greywacke or graywacke (German ''grauwacke'', signifying a grey, earthy rock) is a variety of sandstone generally characterized by its hardness, dark color, and poorly sorted angular grains of quartz, feldspar, and small rock fragments or lit ...

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates ...

of the Loweswater Formation outcropping to the north.British Geological Survey: 1:50,000 series maps, ''England & Wales Sheet 29'': BGS (1999)

Ascents

Hopegill Head can be climbed by various routes. Many people arrive along the ridge from Grisedale Pike or Whiteside but it is also possible to ascend from the Vale of Lorton and from the Whinlatter Pass road by the north west ridge, taking in the subsidiary top of Ladyside Pike. It is also possible to arrive or leave via the

Coledale Hause Hill passes of the Lake District were originally used by people in one valley travelling to another nearby without having to go many miles around a steep ridge of intervening hills. Historically, in the Lake District of northwest England, trave ...

passing over the satellite summit of Sand Hill. This is quite often done as part of the Coledale Round, an 18 kilometre horseshoe walk which takes in the other Coledale fells of Grisedale Pike, Eel Crag, Sail,

Scar Crags Scar Crags is a fell in the north western part of the English Lake District in the county of Cumbria. It is one of the Coledale group of fells situated seven kilometres south west of Keswick and reaches a height of 672 metres (2205 feet). ...

and Causey Pike.

Summit

The summit of the fell is an exhilarating place, a small pointed peak poised on the edge of Hobcarton Crag giving wide ranging views. The

Isle of Man ) , anthem = "O Land of Our Birth" , image = Isle of Man by Sentinel-2.jpg , image_map = Europe-Isle_of_Man.svg , mapsize = , map_alt = Location of the Isle of Man in Europe , map_caption = Location of the Isle of Man (green) in Europe ...

is seen on clear days, as are the Scottish Border hills. To the east the

Helvellyn range The Helvellyn range is the name given to a part of the Eastern Fells in the English Lake District, "fell" being the local word for "hill". The name comes from Helvellyn, the highest summit of the group. The Helvellyn range forms a ridge exten ...

is well seen.

References

* A Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells, The North Western Fells: Alfred Wainwright: * Wainwright’s Favourite Lakeland Mountains: Alfred Wainwright: * The Mountains of England and Wales, Volume 2, John and Anne Nuttall,

External links

Striding Edge
{{North Western Fells Hewitts of England Fells of the Lake District Nuttalls Buttermere, Cumbria (village)