High Tove 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 ...

, close to the geographical centre of the

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders the Scottish council areas of Dumfries and Galloway and Scottish Borders to the north, Northumberland and County Durham to the east, North Yorkshire to the south-east, Lancash ...

n hills. It forms part of the watershed between the Derwentwater and

Thirlmere Thirlmere is a reservoir in the Cumberland (unitary authority), Cumberland district in Cumbria and the English Lake District National Park, Lake District. The Helvellyn ridge lies to the east of Thirlmere. To the west of Thirlmere are a numbe ...

catchments, a ridge running broadly north-south.

Topography

Sitting astride the spine of the Central Fells, High Tove is an outlier of High Seat. It is separated from its taller northern neighbour by the Pewits, an extremely boggy depression. The ridge moves on south across further upland marsh towards Ullscarf, passing over the three rocky (and dry) outcrops of Middle Crag, Shivery Knott and Watendlath Fell (summit unnamed on Ordnance Survey maps). Armboth Fell lies to the south east of High Tove, connected to the ridge by a broad heathery saddle. High Tove covers around one and a half miles of the north-south ridge, which is approximately a mile in width. It is bounded on the west by Watendlath Gill and its main feeder, Blea Tarn Gill. These flow to Watendlath Tarn, a popular beauty spot. The tarn is available for private fishing, being well stocked with

trout Trout (: trout) is a generic common name for numerous species of carnivorous freshwater ray-finned fishes belonging to the genera '' Oncorhynchus'', ''Salmo'' and ''Salvelinus'', all of which are members of the subfamily Salmoninae in the ...

. It holds a wide selection of flora, including water lilies and is at least 50 ft deep.Don Blair: ''Exploring Lakeland Tarns'': Lakeland Manor Press (2003): Fisher and Launchy Gills provide the eastern boundaries of High Tove, flowing north and south around Armboth Fell respectively. Both are feeders of Thirlmere.

Geology

The summit is an island outcrop of the Thirlmere Member in a sea of drift deposits. The Thirlmere Member comprises welded rhyodacitic

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 co ...

with

breccia Breccia ( , ; ) is a rock composed of large angular broken fragments of minerals or Rock (geology), rocks cementation (geology), cemented together by a fine-grained matrix (geology), matrix. The word has its origins in the Italian language ...

.British Geological Survey: 1:50,000 series maps, ''England & Wales Sheet 29'': BGS (1999)

Ascents

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 on horses. Trails originally created for use by horses often now serve a wider ...

provides the pass from Watendlath to Armboth crossing the ridge. Unusually it keeps to the summit rather than a depression, in an attempt to avoid wet ground. A further path runs along the watershed, accompanied by a wire fence. This can prove useful for crossing the worst of the bogs.Bill Birkett: ''Complete Lakeland Fells'': Collins Willow (1994):

Summit

The top has a large

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 ...

, which in Wainwright's words ''offers a seat to travellers who wish to pour the water out of their boots.'' The views are good to the either side, the Helvellyn range nearby to the east and a wide selection of major fells visible on the opposite flank of the ridge. Higher neighbours obstruct the view to north and south.Mark Richards: ''The Central Fells'': Collins (2003):

References

{{Central Fells Fells of the Lake District