Bakestall 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 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 ...

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 seven kilometres (4½ miles) north of Keswick in the quieter, even secluded northern sector of the national park known as ‘Back o’ Skiddaw’.

Topography

Bakestall reaches a height of 673 m (2,208 ft) and strictly speaking it is not a separate fell being just an insignificant rise on

Skiddaw Skiddaw is a mountain in the Lake District National Park in England. Its summit is the sixth-highest in England. It lies just north of the town of Keswick, Cumbria, and dominates the skyline in this part of the northern lakes. It is the ...

’s northern slopes.

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 ...

gave Bakestall a separate chapter in his ''

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 ...

'' because of the impressive Dead Crags which fall beneath the summit and the fine waterfall of Whitewater Dash at the fells foot. Indeed Bakestall was not even mentioned on the old

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 ...

one-inch map for many years, a situation now rectified on its metric equivalent probably because of Wainwright’s having drawn attention to the fell. Dead Crags are composed of Skiddaw Slate and drop 150 metres (500 feet) down into the corrie on the northern side of the fell. The crags do not attract

rock climbers Rock climbing is a sport in which participants climb up, across, or down natural rock formations. The goal is to reach the summit of a formation or the endpoint of a usually pre-defined route without falling. Rock climbing is a physically an ...

because of the crumbly nature of the slate, which has much vegetation growing within it. Whitewater Dash is highly rated as one of the finest falls in the national park as Dash Beck descends in a series of cataracts; were it situated in a more accessible part of the Lake District it would be a major attraction. Bakestall had a

lead Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cut, ...

mine on its slopes many years ago, the adit being situated at the side of Dead Beck on the western periphery of the fell. All drainage from Bakestall goes north to join Dash Beck and then to

Bassenthwaite Lake Bassenthwaite Lake is one of the largest water bodies in the English Lake District. It is long and narrow, approximately long and wide, but is also extremely shallow, with a maximum depth of about . It is the only body of water in the Lake ...

Ascents

Bakestall can be climbed as part of the less crowded northern approach to Skiddaw using the rough track to Skiddaw House (part of the

Cumbria Way The Cumbria Way is a linear long-distance footpath in Cumbria, England. The majority of the route is inside the boundaries of the Lake District National Park. Linking the two historic Cumbrian towns of Ulverston and Carlisle, it passes throu ...

) as far as Whitewater Dash falls and then ascending Birkett Edge to reach the summit. A fence can be followed up Birkett Edge although walking at the side of the corrie edge gives an opportunity to examine the crags. From the summit of Bakestall it is a two kilometre walk south west and then south with 275 metres (about 900 feet) of ascent to reach the summit of Skiddaw.

Summit

The summit of the fell is at a turn in the fence, although Wainwright had his top of the fell 100 metres further north, which is a better viewpoint and is marked by a fair-sized

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 prehi ...

, unusual in the grassy northern fells. The view from the top of fell is severely curtailed by the bulk of Skiddaw to the south and there is no view of the main part of Lakeland. However, it is possible to view the

Solway Firth The Solway Firth ( gd, Tràchd Romhra) is a firth that forms part of the border between England and Scotland, between Cumbria (including the Solway Plain) and Dumfries and Galloway. It stretches from St Bees Head, just south of Whitehaven ...

and the

Scottish Border The Anglo-Scottish border () is a border separating Scotland and England which runs for between Marshall Meadows Bay on the east coast and the Solway Firth in the west. The surrounding area is sometimes referred to as "the Borderlands". T ...

hills.

References

* {{Authority control Fells of the Lake District