Eagle Crag 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

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 ...

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. ...

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 ...

, it is situated near the village of

Stonethwaite Stonethwaite is a small village in the Lake District in the English county of Cumbria, historically part of Cumberland, it is situated in the valley of the Stonethwaite Beck, a side valley of Borrowdale, and within the Lake District National ...

where the valleys of Langstrath and Greenup join. Impressive walls of crag look down upon Stonethwaite, making Eagle Crag the most arresting sight from that settlement. It can be climbed direct by the average walker, picking a route between the rock faces.

Topography

The fell has not been given an official height by 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 ...

and is given various heights by several other sources ranging between 520 and 525 metres.

Bill Birkett Thomas William Birkett (born 1952) better known as Bill Birkett is an English civil engineer, mountain writer, photographer and climber from the Lake District, Cumbria who has undertaken many expeditions around the world. Early life Bill Bir ...

gives the fell a height of 521 metres (1,709 ft) in his ''Complete Lakeland Fells''.Bill Birkett (1994), ''Complete Lakeland Fells'', HarperCollinsWillow,

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 the height at 1,650 feet (503 metres) approx in his '' Pictorial Guides to the Lakeland Fells'' in 1958, in which he writes: :''“Eagle Crag is so splendidly situated, so nobly proportioned and of so arresting appearance that it is a far worthier object than the parent fell (High Raise) rising behind”''. Eagle Crag is part of the craggy termination of the northern ridge of the higher fell of High Raise and it presents a spectacular sight when viewed from the Stonethwaite valley. It is linked to

Sergeant's Crag Sergeant's Crag is a fell in the English Lake District. It is an intermediate height on the ridge between the Langstrath and Greenup valleys in the Central Fells. Topography As the spur falling north from High Raise gradually narrows, the grou ...

which is just under a kilometre away to the south by a ridge along which runs a

dry stone wall 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 ...

which acts as navigation guide for walkers between the two tops.

Geology

The summit area is formed of the welded

rhyolitic Rhyolite ( ) is the most silica-rich of volcanic rocks. It is generally glassy or fine-grained (aphanitic) in texture, but may be porphyritic, containing larger mineral crystals ( phenocrysts) in an otherwise fine-grained groundmass. The ...

lapilli Lapilli is a size classification of tephra, which is material that falls out of the air during a volcanic eruption or during some meteorite impacts. ''Lapilli'' (singular: ''lapillus'') is Latin for "little stones". By definition lapilli range ...

tuff Tuff is a type of rock made of volcanic ash ejected from a vent during a volcanic eruption. Following ejection and deposition, the ash is lithified into a solid rock. Rock that contains greater than 75% ash is considered tuff, while rock ...

, tuff and

breccia Breccia () is a rock composed of large angular broken fragments of minerals or rocks cemented together by a fine-grained matrix. The word has its origins in the Italian language, in which it means "rubble". A breccia may have a variety of ...

of the Crinkle Member. Patches of rhyolite outcrop lower down the slope.

British Geological Survey The British Geological Survey (BGS) is a partly publicly funded body which aims to advance geoscientific knowledge of the United Kingdom landmass and its continental shelf by means of systematic surveying, monitoring and research. The BGS hea ...

: 1:50,000 series, sheet 29: BGS (1999)

Summit

A small

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 ...

marks the summit, balanced on a tilted slab of rock, with crags a few yards distant to west and north. A corner in the dry stone wall is a couple of minutes walk away southward. The view from the top of the fell is best to the north and west with

Borrowdale Borrowdale is a valley and civil parish in the English Lake District in the Borough of Allerdale in Cumbria, England. It lies within the historic county boundaries of Cumberland. It is sometimes referred to as ''Cumberland Borrowdale'' ...

and the Langstrath valley and the fells around them being well seen.

Ascents

Eagle Crag is usually climbed from Stonethwaite; it can be combined with the higher fells of High Raise and

Ullscarf Ullscarf is a fell in the English Lake District close to the geographical centre of the Cumbrian hills. It forms part of the watershed between the Derwentwater and Thirlmere catchments, a ridge running broadly north-south. Topography Ullsc ...

as well as the nearby Sergeant’s Crag. A direct ascent of the fell seems to be impossible when it is viewed from the Stonethwaite valley, with vertical walls of crags seemingly barring the way. However, a route can be found through the crags to attain the summit directly. Descents by this route are not recommended because of the dangerous crags which cannot be seen from above. An easier ascent follows the

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 ...

up Greenup Gill; this well-blazed trail is part of Wainwright’s

Coast to Coast Walk The Coast to Coast Walk is a long-distance footpath between the west and east coasts of Northern England, nominally long. Devised by Alfred Wainwright, it passes through three contrasting national parks: the Lake District National Park, the ...

. The route leaves the

at height of 330 metres and attains the fell by cutting back on itself and climbing steep grassy slopes to the summit.

Rock climbing

The crags directly beneath the summit are used by

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 ...

with climbs graded in the ''extreme'' and ''very severe'' categories.

References

{{Central Fells Fells of the Lake District