Arthur's Pike 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 Moorland, moor-covered hill. The term is most often employed in Fennoscandia, Iceland, the Isle of M ...

in the English

Lake District The Lake District, also known as ''the Lakes'' or ''Lakeland'', is a mountainous region and National parks of the United Kingdom, national park in Cumbria, North West England. It is famous for its landscape, including its lakes, coast, and mou ...

, near

Ullswater Ullswater is a glacial lake in Cumbria, England and part of the Lake District National Park. It is the second largest lake in the region by both area and volume, after Windermere. The lake is about long, wide, and has a maximum depth of . I ...

. It is a subsidiary top on the ridge falling north from Loadpot Hill in the

Far Eastern Fells The Far Eastern Fells are a part of the Cumbrian Mountains in the Lake District of England. Reaching their highest point at High Street (828 metres or 2.718 ft.), they occupy a broad area to the east of Ullswater and Kirkstone Pass. ...

. An extensive craggy face stands above the lower reach of Ullswater.

Topography

The fell is separated from Loadpot Hill by a broad depression just south east of the summit, the ground here being quite marshy. The descending ridge turns north east at Arthur's Pike, passing over the knoll of White Knott as it falls between Aik Beck and the lake, heading for

Pooley Bridge Pooley Bridge is a village in the Westmorland and Furness of the northwestern English county of Cumbria, within the traditional borders of Westmorland. The village takes its name from a bridge over the River Eamont at the northern end of Ul ...

. Wainwright chose to define the fell between these narrow limits,Wainwright, A: ''

A 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 ...

, Book 2'': assigning the wider slopes around Moor Divock to Loadpot Hill, and that convention is followed here. To the west of Arthur's Pike the land falls steeply to Swarthbeck. This stream divides the fell from its twin, Bonscale Pike, before flowing to Ullswater. The north western face of Arthur's Pike has several tiers of crag, dropping to a belt of cultivated land and then the lakeside road to

Howtown Howtown is a hamlet in Cumbria, England, situated at a small harbour on the east shore of Ullswater in the Lake District. It lies within the civil parish of Martindale. Howtown is about three and a half miles from Pooley Bridge and is best re ...

Summit

Arthur's Pike has a small summit set back from the crags on a grassy plateau. The remains of a beacon (columnar

cairn A cairn is a human-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 (plural ). Cairns have been and are used for a broad variety of purposes. In prehistory, t ...

) mark the brink of the face.

Ascents

There is no clear path to the summit, but a little to the south east the High Street Roman road runs past. The obvious direct ascent is from Swarthbeck on the Howtown road, outflanking the crags to the north and making for White Knott on a good path. The top can also be reached from the Roman road, either northwards from Loadpot Hill or southwards from Pooley Bridge or Helton.

References

{{Far Eastern Fells Fells of the Lake District