Top o'Selside is a hill in the 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 ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. At , it is the highest point of the group of hills situated between

Coniston Water Coniston Water in the English county of Cumbria is the third-largest lake in the Lake District by volume (after Windermere and Ullswater), and the fifth-largest by area. It is five miles long by half a mile wide (8 km by 800 m), has ...

and

Windermere Windermere (sometimes tautologically called Windermere Lake to distinguish it from the nearby town of Windermere) is the largest natural lake in England. More than 11 miles (18 km) in length, and almost 1 mile (1.5 km) at its wides ...

. This group also includes the Wainwright of Black Fell and the summits of Black Brows and Rusland Heights. Top o'Selside lies not in the centre of this region, but in the south-western corner, just outside the forestry plantations of

Grizedale Forest Grizedale Forest is a 24.47 km2 area of woodland in the Lake District of North West England, located to the east of Coniston Water and to the south of Hawkshead. It is made up of a number of hills, small tarns and the settlements of Grizeda ...

and only two-thirds of a mile from the eastern shore of Coniston Water. This large separation from any higher ground gives it enough

relative height 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 ...

to make it a Marilyn.

Ascents

It is listed 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'', publis ...

's '' Pictorial Guide to the Outlying Fells'', where the author gives an anticlockwise circuit from High Nibthwaite reaching the summit by way of a nameless summit at (actually one of two cairns visited on the western edge of Brock Barrow), Low Light Haw at , High Light Haw at , and returning to the west. This walk is a little over four miles and involves about a thousand feet of climb. Wainwright's location is not the highest point of the fell, being 100m to the west of the true summit and 1m lower.Database of British and Irish Hills
/ref> The western slopes (named Selside, from which the hill derives its name) are entirely forested, but a path zigzags up the steep fellside from a parking area at grid ref. SD 299927. This provides the shortest route to the summit and is two miles long (there and back). The view is very impressive, although only a small portion of

can be seen from the summit. The

Old Man of Coniston The Old Man of Coniston is a fell in the Furness Fells in the Cumbria, English Lake District and is the highest point (county top) of the historic county of Lancashire. It is at least high, and lies to the west of the village of Coniston and ...

, Black Combe, the

Helvellyn Helvellyn (; possible meaning: ''pale yellow moorland'') is a mountain in the English Lake District, the highest point of the Helvellyn range, a north–south line of mountains to the north of Ambleside, between the lakes of Thirlmere and Ul ...

and

High Street High Street is a common street name for the primary business street of a city, town, or village, especially in the United Kingdom and Commonwealth. It implies that it is the focal point for business, especially shopping. It is also a metonym fo ...

groups all feature prominently, as well as Ingleborough in the

Yorkshire Dales The Yorkshire Dales is an upland area of the Pennines in the historic county of Yorkshire, England, most of it in the Yorkshire Dales National Park created in 1954. The Dales comprise river valleys and the hills rising from the Vale of York w ...

. There are extensive views of Coniston Water from the two cairns which Wainwright visits on the ascent, and from the track used for the return journey.

Tarn

There is a small sheet of water to the south of the summit, Arnsbarrow Tarn (pictured above). According to Heaton Cooper, the tarn is held in the moraines left by two

glacier A glacier (; ) is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires distinguishing features, such as ...

s moving down each valley. He also says the area was populated by lawless brigands in the 14th century, who were led by Adam de Beaumont. They held the neighbourhood in terror for seventeen years from 1346 to 1363, when they were finally caught. Arnesbarrow is a Norse name meaning burial place or stronghold of Arne.

Ascents

Tarn

References

See also