Sour Howes is a small fell 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 ...

. It is situated five kilometres east of

Ambleside Ambleside is a town and former civil parish, now in the parish of Lakes, Cumbria, Lakes, in Cumbria, in North West England. Historic counties of England, Historically in Westmorland, it marks the head (and sits on the east side of the northern ...

, between the Troutbeck and Kentmere valleys and is one of the two separate fells on Applethwaite Common (the other being Sallows).

Topography

Sour Howes, which reaches a height of 483 m (1,585 ft) is mostly grassy although heather grows on the eastern slopes, a high

dry stone Dry stone, sometimes called drystack or, in Scotland, drystane, is a building method by which structures are constructed from stones without any mortar to bind them together. Dry stone structures are stable because of their construction m ...

wall crosses the top and links with the neighbouring fell of Sallows, which lies just over a kilometre to the north east, and with Sour Howe’s subsidiary top of Capple Howe (445 m, 1,460 ft) which is located 600 metres to the south east. The fells western flank falls away steeply to the Troutbeck valley, this slope is traversed lower down by the Dubbs Road

bridleway A bridle path, also bridleway, equestrian trail, horse riding path, ride, bridle road, or horse trail, is a trail or a thoroughfare that is used by people riding horses, riding on horses. Trails originally created for use by horses often now s ...

which goes north joining the track which crosses the

Garburn Pass 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, trav ...

(

Restricted Byway A byway in the United Kingdom is a track, often rural, which is too minor to be called a road. These routes are often unsurfaced, typically having the appearance of ' green lanes'. Despite this, it is legal (but may not be physically possible) to ...

), on its way to Kentmere. The disused and now wooded Applethwaite quarry stands on these western slope alongside the Garburn track, it is quite substantial and an interesting place to explore. On its eastern side Sour Howes drops more gently to the Kentmere valley with the stream of Park Beck draining the fell and being a tributary of the

River Kent The River Kent is a short river in the county of Cumbria in England. It originates in hills surrounding Kentmere, and flows for around 20 miles (32 km) into the north of Morecambe Bay. The upper reaches and the western bank of the estuary ...

. There are some well made grouse butts amongst the heather on these eastern slopes.

Ascents

Sour Howes can be ascended from the Troutbeck or Kentmere valleys, its ascent can be combined with the adjacent fell of Sallows and also with a visit to the more stirring

Yoke A yoke is a wooden beam sometimes used between a pair of oxen or other animals to enable them to pull together on a load when working in pairs, as oxen usually do; some yokes are fitted to individual animals. There are several types of yoke, us ...

Thornthwaite Crag Thornthwaite Crag is a fell in the English Lake District, standing to the west of Haweswater Reservoir. It is a focal point of the Far Eastern Fells, standing at the head of several valleys. Topography The summit area is broadly horseshoe-shape ...

ridge to the north. The ascents from either valley utilise the Garburn Pass track to its highest point before going south to the summit following the dry stone wall.

Summit

The top of the fell is a series of grassy knolls with the highest of these marked by a small pile of stones, the view is extremely fine for such a small fell, there is a fine vista of the high mountains to the west, to the south

Windermere Windermere (sometimes tautology (language), tautologically called Windermere Lake to distinguish it from the nearby town of Windermere, Cumbria (town), Windermere) is the largest natural lake in England. More than 11 miles (18 km) in leng ...

is well seen and beyond that

Morecambe Bay Morecambe Bay is a large estuary in northwest England, just to the south of the Lake District National Park. It is the largest expanse of intertidal mudflats and sand in the United Kingdom, covering a total area of . In 1974, the second larges ...

References

* A Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells, The Far Eastern Fells, Alfred Wainwright * Complete Lakeland Fells, Bill Birkett, {{Far Eastern Fells Fells of the Lake District