Harter Fell 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 far eastern part of the

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

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 ...

. The summit at lies the meeting point of three ridges, and Harter Fell forms the head of three

valley A valley is an elongated low area often running between hills or mountains and typically containing a river or stream running from one end to the other. Most valleys are formed by erosion of the land surface by rivers or streams over ...

s: Mardale,

Longsleddale Longsleddale () is a valley and civil parish in the Westmorland and Furness district of Cumbria, England. It includes the hamlet of Sadgill. The parish has a population of 73. As the population taken at the 2011 Census was less than 100, detail ...

and the valley of the

River Kent The River Kent is a short river in the county of Cumbria in England. It originates in hills surrounding Kentmere, and flows for around 20 miles (32 km) into the north of Morecambe Bay. The upper reaches and the western bank of the estuary ...

Topography

In plan section the summit area forms a horseshoe, open to the south east. This ridge is narrow and grassy, with a relatively new fence in place. There are subsidiary tops on both horns of the horseshoe. The southern ridge passes over The Knowe and then Brown Howe, before connecting to Kentmere Pike. The eastern branch includes the rocky top of Little Harter Fell (), and Adam Seat () which is marked by a prominent boundary stone. This ridge continues down to

Gatescarth Pass Hill passes of the Lake District were originally used by people in one valley travelling to another nearby without having to go many miles around a steep ridge of intervening hills. Historically, in the Lake District of northwest England, trave ...

before rising again to Branstree. Connecting to the centre of the summit horseshoe, producing a shape not unlike a tuning fork in plan, is Harter Fell's third ridge. This starts lower down the fell-side and cannot be seen from the summit. This ridge is all together rockier in character and leads swiftly down to

Nan Bield Pass Hill passes of the Lake District were originally used by people in one valley travelling to another nearby without having to go many miles around a steep ridge of intervening hills. Historically, in the Lake District of northwest England, trave ...

for onward connections to Mardale Ill Bell 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 ...

. The western slopes of the fell above

Kentmere Reservoir Kentmere Reservoir is a water storage facility situated in the Kentmere valley in the county of Cumbria, England. It is located north-northeast of the town of Windermere. The reservoir is fed by the streams which form the headwaters of the River ...

are moderately steep, with an area of historic landslip surrounding Dry Gill. A low subsidiary ridge juts out into Kentmere, separating it from the valley of Ullstone Gill. This is named for The Ullstone, a prominent erratic boulder. The summit horseshoe of Harter Fell forms the head of Wren Gill, the main headwater of the River Sprint in Longsleddale. At Wrengill Quarry near the base of the slope, the Gill drops into sinkholes, reappearing from the ground a few yards lower down. The slopes on this south eastern side of the fell are gentle and generally grassy. To the north above the head of Mardale, Harter Fell shows a different character. Extensive crags, unnamed on

Ordnance Survey The Ordnance Survey (OS) is the national mapping agency for Great Britain. The agency's name indicates its original military purpose (see Artillery, ordnance and surveying), which was to map Scotland in the wake of the Jacobite rising of ...

maps, drop to the valley. Further crags fringe the descending ridge to Nan Bield. Below these is the beautiful mountain tarn of Small Water. This corrie tarn, with a depth of around has brown trout and perch.

Ascents

The walkers' passes of Nan Bield and Gatescarth provided historic trade routes from Mardale to Kentmere and Longsleddale respectively. With the submergence of Mardale Green village beneath

Haweswater reservoir Haweswater is a reservoir in the valley of Mardale, Cumbria in the Lake District, England. Work to raise the height of the original natural lake was started in 1929. It was controversially dammed after the UK Parliament passed a local act o ...

in the 1940s, their original purpose has died, but both routes still provide good access for fellwalkers and are the easiest ways onto Harter Fell. The upper sections still bear the original zig-zags over steep ground. The fell is most frequently climbed from Mardale, as there is road access along the shore of Haweswater. Harter Fell summit is southwest and above the carpark at the

head of the reservoir In hydrology, the head is the point on a watercourse up to which it has been artificially broadened and/or raised by an impoundment. Above the head of the reservoir natural conditions prevail; below it the water level above the riverbed has b ...

. Crags block a direct ascent, however, and Harter Fell is thus normally climbed via Gatescarth Pass to the east of the summit, or Nan Bield Pass to the west. These two passes also provide the easiest access from Kentmere or Longsleddale. A longer route from the Kent valley follows the ridge that separates it from Longsleddale, taking in Kentmere Pike on the way. This may form part of the Kentmere Horseshoe walk which also includes the

Ill Bell Ill Bell is a fell in the English Lake District, in the county of Cumbria, standing on the narrow ridge between the valleys of Kentmere and Troutbeck. Topography To the north is Froswick, a strikingly similar lesser copy, while the adjoining ...

ridge. An ascent of Harter Fell may also be combined with fells such as Branstree, Mardale Ill Bell and High Street to form a high-level circuit of Mardale from the road end. Finally, direct ascents from Longsleddale can also be made up the grassy slopes above Wrengill Quarry.

Summit

As well as a pile of stones, the summit

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 ...

of Harter Fell carries many pieces of ironwork salvaged from the fence. Some of these resemble upended pitchforks, and when encountered unexpectedly on a misty day, the effect is faintly nightmarish.

Alfred Wainwright Alfred Wainwright Order of the British Empire, MBE (17 January 1907 – 20 January 1991), who preferred to be known as A. Wainwright or A.W., was a British fellwalking, fellwalker, guidebook author and illustrator. His seven-volume ''Pictorial ...

:''

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: A second cairn to the north carries similar decoration. The view is good all round and can be improved by moving to the rim of the crags, bringing the full length of Haweswater into sight.

Listing

Harter Fell was originally listed as a Marilyn in Alan Dawson's ''The Relative Hills of Britain'', but it was later found not to have the required 150 m of

relative height In topography, prominence or relative height (also referred to as autonomous height, and shoulder drop in US English, and drop in British English) measures the height of a mountain or hill's summit relative to the lowest contour line encircling ...

, missing out by 1 metre.

References

Lake District Walks - Harter Fell Walk
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110614135855/http://www.lakedistrictwalks.net/harter-fell-walk , date=14 June 2011 Hewitts of England Fells of the Lake District Nuttalls Kentmere