Pike of Stickle, also known as Pike o’ Stickle, 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 ...

. It reaches a height of and is situated in the central part of the

national park A national park is a nature park designated for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes because of unparalleled national natural, historic, or cultural significance. It is an area of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that is protecte ...

in the valley of

Great Langdale Great Langdale is a valley in the Lake District National Park in North West England, the epithet "Great" distinguishing it from the neighbouring valley of Little Langdale. Langdale is also the name of a valley in the Howgill Fells, elsewhere ...

. The fell is one of three fells which make up the picturesque

Langdale Pikes Great Langdale is a valley in the Lake District National Park in North West England, the epithet "Great" distinguishing it from the neighbouring valley of Little Langdale. Langdale is also the name of a valley in the Howgill Fells, elsewhere ...

(the others being

Harrison Stickle Harrison Stickle is a fell in the central part of the English Lake District, situated above Great Langdale. The fell is one of the three (although the number is debated) fells which make up the picturesque Langdale Pikes, the others being Pike ...

and

Loft Crag Loft Crag is a fell in the English Lake District, situated west of Ambleside in the valley of Great Langdale. Along with the neighbouring fells of Harrison Stickle and Pike of Stickle it forms the picturesque Langdale Pikes, which when viewed ...

), one of the best-known areas in Lakeland. A "stickle" is a hill with a steep prominent rocky top, while a "pike" is a hill with a peaked summit, the name being therefore partly tautological.

Topography

The Langdale Pikes form a raised rocky parapet around the southern and eastern edges of a high tableland centred upon Thunacar Knott. Pike of Stickle stands at the western end of this system and its crags fall south from the summit, presenting an arresting view from the valley floor below, or from further afield.

stands next along the rampart, with Thorn Crag and

further to the east. 'Behind' Pike of Stickle to the north is the depression of Harrison Combe, beyond which are the twin tops of Thunacar Knott. Westward the height of the land gradually falls away to Martcrag Moor, a wide plateau with a few small

tarns A tarn (or corrie loch) is a mountain lake, pond or pool, formed in a cirque (or "corrie") excavated by a glacier. A moraine may form a natural dam below a tarn. Etymology The word is derived from the Old Norse word ''tjörn'' ("a small mou ...

near the summit . Martcrag Moor represents the end of the Central Fells as defined by

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 ...

, providing a high-level connection to

Rossett Pike Rossett Pike is a fell in the English Lake District. It is located at the head of Mickleden, one of two tributary valleys of Great Langdale. Topography A bridge of high ground connects the Southern and Central Fells, running from Bow Fell in t ...

in the Southern Fells.

Geology

The rearward slopes show evidence of the Pavey Ark Member, pebbly

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

and

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 ...

. The Langdale face displays several strata: from the top The Lingmell Formation, Crinkle Member and Bad Step Tuff. These are composed, respectively, of

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 ...

lapilli tuff Lapilli (: lapillus) 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'' is Latin for "little stones". By definition lapilli range from in diam ...

and breccia;

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 miner ...

tuff and breccia; and rhyolitic

lava Lava is molten or partially molten rock (magma) that has been expelled from the interior of a terrestrial planet (such as Earth) or a Natural satellite, moon onto its surface. Lava may be erupted at a volcano or through a Fissure vent, fractu ...

-like tuff.British Geological Survey: 1:50,000 series maps, ''England & Wales Sheet 38'': BGS (1999)

Summit

Despite the peaked profile the summit is wide enough for a sizeable

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 ...

surrounded by a small level area. Loft Crag and Gimmer Crag steal the attention in the foreground while

Bowfell Bowfell (named ''Bow Fell'' on Ordnance Survey maps) is a pyramid-shaped mountain lying at the heart of the English Lake District, in the Southern Fells area. It is the eighth-highest mountain in the Lake District and one of the most popula ...

impresses across Langdale. A wide swathe of the

Southern Fells Image:Annotated Scafell range.jpg, 300px, The Scafells rect 23 372 252 419 Slight Side (762 m) rect 173 794 560 834 Scafell East Buttress rect 707 787 893 861 Esk Pike or Crag (885 m) rect 245 303 409 358 Sca Fell (964 m) rect 408 238 637 ...

is in view, whilst even distant

Skiddaw Skiddaw is a mountain in the Lake District National Park in England. Its summit is traditionally considered to be the List of Wainwrights, fourth-highest peak but depending on what topographic prominence is thought to be significant is also ...

puts in an appearance.Mark Richards: ''The Central Fells'': Collins (2003):

Ascents

Pike of Stickle rises steeply from Langdale, culminating in a narrow tapering summit which gives excellent views of the head of the valley, the fells of

Bow Fell Bowfell (named ''Bow Fell'' on Ordnance Survey maps) is a pyramid-shaped mountain lying at the heart of the English Lake District, in the Southern Fells area. It is the eighth-highest mountain in the Lake District and one of the most popular ...

and

Crinkle Crags Crinkle Crags is a fell in the English Lake District in the county of Cumbria. It forms part of two major rings of mountains, surrounding the valleys of Great Langdale and Upper Eskdale. The name reflects the fell's physical appearance a ...

showing well. The fell is usually climbed from Great Langdale with either the New or Old Dungeon Ghyll Hotels as the starting points. There are a number of routes, the most common ascent being a path that slants across the hillside from the New hotel passing between Thorn Crag and Gimmer Crag and then turning left at the

col A col is the lowest point on a mountain ridge between two peaks; a mountain pass or saddle. COL, CoL or col may also refer to: Computers * Caldera OpenLinux, a defunct Linux distribution * , an HTML element specifying a column * A collision sig ...

. A quieter route is by Troughton Beck; the walker starts from the Old hotel and goes towards the head of the valley before bearing right and following a zigzag path at the side of Troughton Beck. This route gives the walker an unusual view of the fell from this unfrequented side. There is another route directly up the Stickle Stone Shoot: this route is steep and has become severely eroded in recent years and is no longer recommended as a means of ascent or descent. The Langdale or

Borrowdale Borrowdale is a valley and civil parish in the English Lake District in Cumberland (unitary authority), Cumberland, England. It is in the ceremonial county of Cumbria, and is sometimes referred to as ''Cumberland Borrowdale'' to distinguis ...

sides of

Stake 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 ...

can also be used, giving access onto Martcrag Moor.

Stone axe factory

Pike of Stickle is the site of one of the most important

neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

stone axe factories in Europe. The most prominent quarries are situated above the scree slopes on the steep southern face of the fell. The factory was set up here because of a vein of greenstone, a very hard

volcanic rock Volcanic rocks (often shortened to volcanics in scientific contexts) are rocks formed from lava erupted from a volcano. Like all rock types, the concept of volcanic rock is artificial, and in nature volcanic rocks grade into hypabyssal and me ...

, which comes to the surface around the head of the valley. Evidence of axe manufacture have been found in many areas of Great Langdale but it is the screes of Pike of Stickle which have yielded the most discoveries. There is a small cave at the top of the Stickle Stone Shoot near the summit of the fell which was part of the stone axe factory.

References

Image:Pike_of_Stickle_from_Troughton_Gill_B.jpg, Pike of Stickle as seen from Troughton Gill Image:Pike_O.jpg, Pike of Stickle as seen from Thunacar Knott {{DEFAULTSORT:Pike Of Stickle Fells of the Lake District Hewitts of England Nuttalls Westmorland and Furness