Binsey is a hill on the northern edge of 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 ...

in Cumbria, England. It is detached from the rest of the Lakeland hills, and thus provides a good spot to look out at the

Northern Northern may refer to the following: Geography * North, a point in direction * Northern Europe, the northern part or region of Europe * Northern Highland, a region of Wisconsin, United States * Northern Province, Sri Lanka * Northern Range, a ra ...

and

North Western Fells The North Western Fells are a group of hills in the English Lake District. Including such favourites as Catbells and Grisedale Pike, they occupy an oval area beneath the Buttermere and Borrowdale valley systems. The North Western Fells are chara ...

of the Lake District, as well as the coastal plain and, across the Solway Firth, Scotland. Snaefell on the Isle of Man is also visible on a clear day. It is the northernmost of the Wainwrights.

Topography

Binsey stands on the otherwise low-level watershed separating the catchments of the Ellen to the north and the Derwent to the south. A slight ridge connects it to Great Cockup in the main massif of the Northern Fells, two miles to the south east. Binsey itself has a rounded form, but somehow manages to impress the eye more than the similar

Great Mell Fell Great Mell Fell (''Bare hill'', with the later additions of both "Fell" and "Great") is an isolated hill or fell in the English Lake District, north of Ullswater and adjacent to the Eastern Fells. It rises from a level plain to a height of 537& ...

and

Little Mell Fell Little Mell Fell (''Bare hill'', with the later additions of both "Fell" and "Little") is a small fell in the English Lake District. It is an outlier of the Eastern Fells, standing to the north of Ullswater near the village of Watermillock, and ...

. The ‘pudding basin’ shape holds all around Binsey except to the north west where a ridge descends over Whitas Park to a depression containing the remains of a Roman fort. Beyond is St John's Hill (950 ft / 290 m) (called Caermote Hill in Wainwright’s Outlying Fells) which is topped by an earthwork called ‘The Battery’. Finally the ridge descends to the village of Bothel in the Ellen Valley. Binsey sends out a further spur to the east, culminating in the shapely top of Latrigg (1,030 ft)— not to be confused with Latrigg near Keswick. Beneath Latrigg is Over Water, a large tarn which was raised by damming in 1920 to provide drinking water for Wigton.Blair, Don: ''Exploring Lakeland Tarns'': Lakeland Manor Press (2003): The outflow of Over Water feeds the Ellen, as does the gloriously named Humble Jumble Gill which drains Binsey's northern flank. The hill is largely grass and heather, with only one significant outcrop of rock, West Crag. Flanking the eastern slopes of the fell is a thin belt of mixed woodland and a further plantation sits below West Crag. Binsey sketch map

Summit

The summit is crowned by a tumulus whose stones have been raided to produce several small circular wind-shelters. There is also a modern

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 ...

atop the tumulus and a trig point. Regarding the view, Wainwright stated: ‘...it is a most excellent station for appraising the Northern Fells as a preliminary to their exploration...it is a viewpoint of outstanding merit.’ Wainwright, Alfred: '' A Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells,Book 5 The Northern Fells'': Far to the south the Coniston Fells can be seen, almost 25 miles (40 km) away, while to the north the Solway Firth and the hills of Scotland are visible. A computer-generated summit panorama can be seen here. The furthest point visible on a clear day is the top of Slieve Donard, the highest mountain in Northern Ireland, in Mourne, 115 miles (185 km) away.

Geology

The hill is formed from volcanic rocks, namely various sub-units of the

Eycott Volcanic Group The Eycott Volcanic Group is a group of volcanic rock formations of Ordovician age (Llandeilo to Caradoc epochs) named after the locality of Eycott Hill in the English Lake District.British Geological Survey 1997 ''Cockermouth'' England and Wales ...

,Birkett, Bill: ''Complete Lakeland Fells'': Collins Willow (1994): which consists of

basaltic andesite Basaltic andesite is a volcanic rock that is intermediate in composition between basalt and andesite. It is composed predominantly of augite and plagioclase. Basaltic andesite can be found in volcanoes around the world, including in Central Ameri ...

, andesite and

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 mineral ...

lavas.British Geological Survey: 1:50,000 series maps, ''England & Wales Sheet 29'': BGS (1999)British Geological Survey 12997 ''Cockermouth'' England and Wales sheet 23 Solid & Drift geology. 1;50,000 (Keyworth, Nottingham: BGS) There are several small disused quarries to the east and north.

Ascents

The hill can be climbed by several routes, perhaps most simply beginning in the south-east (Parking on the road between Binsey Lodge and Fell Side Farm), following a track to the summit. An alternative is along a lane from the

A591 road The A591 is a major road in Cumbria, in the north-west of England, which lies almost entirely within the Lake District national park. A 2009 poll by satellite navigation firm Garmin named the stretch of the road between Windermere and Keswick ...

, just north of Bewaldeth. From the top of the lane a loop to the left and behind a disused pit will enable the track across the summit to be picked up. Wainwright also lists a further route from High Ireby.

Views from the summit

References

{{Marilyns N Eng Marilyns of England Fells of the Lake District Tumuli in England Allerdale