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Place Fell is a hill in the
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...
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 ...
. It stands at the corner of the upper and middle reaches of
Ullswater Ullswater is the second largest lake in the English Lake District, being about long and wide, with a maximum depth a little over . It was scooped out by a glacier in the Last Ice Age. Geography It is a typical Lake District "ribbon lake", ...
, with steep western flanks overlooking the villages of
Glenridding Glenridding is a village at the southern end of Ullswater, in the English Lake District. The village is popular with mountain walkers who can scale England's third-highest mountain, Helvellyn, and many other challenging peaks from there. Ety ...
and
Patterdale Patterdale (Saint Patrick's Dale) is a small village and civil parish in the eastern part of the English Lake District in the Eden District of Cumbria, in the traditional county of Westmorland, and the long valley in which they are found, also ...
.


Topography

A ten-mile-long horseshoe of high ground surrounds the Martindale catchment, a system of valleys draining northward into Ullswater. Place Fell is at the western terminus of this ridge. To the south is Angletarn Pikes, whilst on all other sides Place Fell stands independent and is bordered by deep valleys. The fell is bounded on the north and west by Ullswater. For the most part these flanks fall steeply to the shore, with several areas of woodland on the lower slopes. The exception is Silver Point, the promontory separating the upper and middle reaches of the lake. This is formed by Silver Crag (890 ft), an outlier standing apart from the mass of the fell. The lakeshore path from Sandwick in the north to Patterdale in the south was described by Wainwright as ''the most beautiful and rewarding walk in Lakeland.''
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 ...
'', Book 2:
South of the lake, Place Fell's steep slopes continue above Patterdale village to Boredale Hause above the valley of Goldrill Beck. Place Fell's eastern boundary is Boredale, one of the Martindale valleys. This face is also steep with many outcrops of crag. Travelling up Boredale, the valley turns gradually to the south west, making as though to intercept Patterdale and cut the fell off from its neighbours altogether. The thin strip of high ground at Boredale Hause (1,300 ft) is all that joins Place Fell to the main body of the Far Eastern Fells. A tiny ruin at the top of the pass is named on OS maps as the 'Chapel in the Hause', one of the more unlikely sites for a church. From the hause the ridge can be followed south along a good path to Angletarn Pikes, first climbing the subsidiary top of Stony Rigg (1,610 ft). Other paths from this walkers crossroads lead to Patterdale, Boredale, Bannerdale via Beda Fell, and
Hartsop Hartsop is a small village in the English Lake District. It lies in the Patterdale valley, near Brothers Water, Hayeswater and Kirkstone Pass. It consists of 17th-century grey stone cottages, like so many of its neighbours. Hartsop retains ...
, in addition to the route up Steel Edge to the summit of Place Fell. The top of Place Fell is a wide plateau with the summit at the south western corner. From here the rocky ridge of Hart Crag runs for a short distance north east across the plateau, decorated with a number of small tarns. Continuing in this direction, the ground gradually narrows as it descends to Low Moss, beyond which are the subsidiary tops of High Dodd (1,645 ft) and Sleet Fell (1,240 ft). A second descending ridge runs north from the summit area, beginning at The Knight (1,800 ft). This rock outcrop assumes an impressive peaked appearance when viewed from the north, although from behind it could easily be missed. From here the ridge descends over Bleaberry Knott (1,675 ft) and Low Birk Fell, curving east above the middle reach of Ullswater. Low Birk Fell sports a fine beacon (columnar cairn), easily seen from Sandwick. Between the Bleaberry Fell and High Dodd ridges is the valley of Scalehow Beck, providing much of Place Fell's northern drainage.


Summit

The summit of the fell has an OS triangulation column and
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 ...
placed about ten yards apart on two competing high-points. The cairn sits above Ullswater and provides superb views up the facing valleys from Glencoyne round to Kirkstone, the rough eastern faces of 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 ...
being particularly striking.


Ascents

Place Fell can be climbed from Patterdale, either via Boredale Hause or more directly by aiming up the face between Bleaberry Knott and The Knight. Ascents can also be made from Sandwick up either of the north eastern ridges, or from Boredale via the Hause. The altitude gain from the shores of Ullswater to the peak of Place Fell is 512 m, but trails have shallow gradients and no hands-on scrambling is required; scrambling opportunities are few, even off-trail.


References

{{Marilyns N Eng Hewitts of England Marilyns of England Fells of the Lake District Nuttalls Patterdale