Skiddaw
Skiddaw from Borrowdale
Elevation	931  m (3,054  ft)
Location	Cumbria,  England
Range	Lake District Northern Fells
Prominence	912 m
Topo map	OS Landrangers 89, 90, Explorer OL4
OS grid reference	NY260290
Listing	Marilyn, Hewitt, Wainwright, Nuttall

Skiddaw is a mountain in the Lake District National Park in the United Kingdom. With a summit at 931 m (3,054 feet) above sea level it is the fourth highest mountain in England (the third highest if Scafell Pike and Sca Fell are regarded as one mountain), and the lowest above 3000 feet. It lies just north of the town of Keswick, Cumbria, and dominates the skyline in this part of the northern lakes. It is the simplest of the Lake District mountains of this height to ascend (as there is a well-trodden tourist track from a car park to the north-east of Keswick, near the summit of Latrigg) and, as such, many walking guides recommend it to the occasional walker wishing to climb a mountain. ImageMetadata File history File links Skiddaw_borrowdale. ... Borrowdale is the name of two valleys in the English Lake District. ... A topographical summit is a point on a surface which is higher in elevation than all points immediately adjacent to it. ... The metre, or meter (U.S.), is a measure of length. ... A foot (plural: feet or foot;[1] symbol or abbreviation: ft or, sometimes, ′ – a prime) is a unit of length, in a number of different systems, including English units, Imperial units, and United States customary units. ... Cumbria (IPA: ), created in 1974, is a county in the North West region of England. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_England_(bordered). ... Motto: (French for God and my right) Anthem: God Save the King/Queen Capital London (de facto) Largest city London Official language(s) English (de facto) Unification    - by Athelstan AD 927  Area    - Total 130,395 km² (1st in UK)   50,346 sq mi  Population    - 2006 est. ... The Himalaya as seen from the International Space Station A mountain range is a group of mountains bordered by lowlands or separated from other mountain ranges by passes or rivers. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... In topography, prominence, also known as autonomous height, relative height or shoulder drop (in America) or prime factor (in Europe), is a concept used in the categorization of hills and mountains, also known as peaks. ... Example of a topographic map with contour lines Part of the same map in a perspective shaded relief view illustrates how the contour lines of the original follow the terrain Topographic maps are a variety of map characterized by large-scale detail and quantitative representation of relief, usually using contour... Part of an Ordnance Survey map at 1 inch to the mile scale from 1945 Ordnance Survey (OS) is an executive agency of the United Kingdom government. ... The British national grid reference system is a system of geographic grid references commonly used in Great Britain, different from using latitude or longitude. ... The mountains and hills of Great Britain, and to a lesser extent Ireland, are the subject of a considerable number of lists which categorise them by height, topographic prominence, or other criteria. ... A Marilyn is a hill with a relative height of at least 150 metres, regardless of absolute height or other merit. ... A Hewitt is a hill in England, Wales or Ireland over two thousand feet (609. ... Alfred Wainwright listed 214 fells in total in his series of seven Pictorial Guides to the Lakeland Fells. ... The Nuttalls are hills in England and Wales over 610 m (2000 feet), which rise above their surroundings on all sides by 15 m. ... The mountains and hills of Great Britain, and to a lesser extent Ireland, are the subject of a considerable number of lists which categorise them by height, topographic prominence, or other criteria. ... Lyskamm, 4 527 m, Pennine Alps A mountain is a landform that extends above the surrounding terrain in a limited area. ... Crinkle Crags as seen from the adjoining fell of Cold Pike. ... This article is about a foot as a unit of length. ... At 978 metres (3,208 feet), Scafell Pike is the highest mountain in England. ... Sca Fell (pronounced Scawfell or Scarfell), also known as Scafell by writers such as Alfred Wainwright, is a mountain in the English Lake District. ... The Moot Hall in the centre of Keswick. ... Cumbria (IPA: ), created in 1974, is a county in the North West region of England. ... Latrigg (height 1203 ft) is one of the smallest fells in the Lake District. ...

The mountain lends its name to the surrounding areas of "Skiddaw Forest", and "Back o' Skidda'" and to the isolated "Skiddaw House", situated to the east, formerly a shooting lodge and subsequently a youth hostel. It also provides the name for the slate derived from that region: Skiddaw Slate. Tuned percussion musical instruments or lithophones exist which are made from the slate, such as the Musical Stones of Skiddaw held at Keswick Museum and Art Gallery. Youth hostel in Rome. ... Skiddaw slate is an early Ordovician compressed sedimentary rock, as first identified on the slopes of Skiddaw in the English Lake District. ... A lithophone is a musical instrument consisting of a plurality of rocks or pieces of rock, in which musical notes are sounded by striking one or more of the rocks in combination. ... A history of the Musical Stones of Skiddaw. ...

Topography

The Northern Fells comprise a roughly circular upland area with a diameter approaching 10 miles. At the centre is the marshy depression of Skiddaw Forest— a treeless plateau at an altitude of 1,300 ft— and flowing outward from here are the rivers which divide the area into three sectors. The south western sector, between the Glenderaterra Beck and Dash Beck, contains Skiddaw and its satellites.^[1] A mile is a unit of length, usually used to measure distance, in a number of different systems, including Imperial units, United States customary units and Norwegian/Swedish mil. ... A sector is a part of a whole. ...

Skiddaw itself takes the form of a north-south ridge about half a mile long, with steep slopes to east and west. The ridge continues northward over Broad End to Bakestall, a fell overlooking the Whitewater Dash waterfall. Further ridges fan out east and west from the southern end of Skiddaw. To the south east are Skiddaw Little Man, Lonscale Fell and Latrigg, an easily accessible viewpoint for Keswick and Derwentwater. Beyond these fells are the Glenderaterra Beck and the Blencathra group. The south western ridge curves round through 180 degrees to run north above the shore of Bassenthwaite Lake. This gives Skiddaw an 'outer wall', comprised of Carl Side, Long Side and Ullock Pike, collectively referred to as 'Longside Edge'. The final member of the Skiddaw Group is Dodd, a satellite of Carl Side. Bakestall is a fell in the English Lake District, it is situated seven kilometres north of Keswick in the quieter even secluded northern sector of the national park known as Back o Skiddaw. The fell reaches a height of 673 metres (2208 feet) and strictly speaking it is not a... Skiddaw is a hill in the Lake District National Park in the United Kingdom. ... Lonscale Fell is a hill in the English Lake District. ... Latrigg (height 1203 ft) is one of the smallest fells in the Lake District. ... A view of Derwent Water in the English Lake District Derwent Water (alternative spelling, Derwentwater) is one of the principal bodies of water in the Lake District National Park in the north of England. ... Blencathra is one of the most northerly mountains in the Lake District, United Kingdom. ... Map of the lake from 1925 Bassenthwaite Lake seen from Blackstock Point The south end of Bassenthwaite Lake Bassenthwaite Lake is located in the Lake District in England. ... Carl Side, height 2420 ft, is a mountain in the English Lake District, a member of the Skiddaw Family and one of Wainwrights Northern Fells. ... Long Side is a fell in the English Lake District, it is situated six kilometres north west of Keswick in the northern sector of the national park and is part of the Skiddaw group of fells. ... Ullock Pike is a fell situated in northern part of the English Lake District. ... Dodd may be: A. H. Dodd, Welsh historian Anna Bowman Dodd, author Andy Dodd, record producer Archibald Charles Dodd, Canadian Bella Dodd, author Bobby Dodd, American college football coach Brad Dodd Australian Rules footballer C. H. Dodd, British Bible scholar Carl Nicholas Henty-Dodd, British TV and radio presenter Simon...

sketch map of the Skiddaw massif

Between Skiddaw and Longside Edge are the quiet valleys of Southerndale and Barkbethdale, separated by the spur of Buzzard Knott. These drain the western flanks of the fell to Bassenthwaite Lake. The eastern side of Skiddaw drains into Skiddaw Forest, much of the water reaching Candleseaves Bog. This marsh is the source of both the Dash Beck flowing north west to Bassenthwaite and the River Caldew, beginning its long journey north eastward to the Solway Firth via Carlisle. Two smooth spurs on this eastern flank of Skiddaw, Sale How and Hare Crag, are listed in separate tops in some guidebooks^[2]. Sale How is also a Nuttall Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Map of Solway Firth. ... Carlisle is a city in the far north-west of England, and is the largest urban area in Cumbria. ... The Nuttalls are hills in England and Wales over 610 m (2000 feet), which rise above their surroundings on all sides by 15 m. ...

Below Sale How is Skiddaw House, a stone building which has variously served as a shooting lodge, shepherd's bothy and Youth Hostel. It's windbreak is comprised of the only trees in Skiddaw Forest, and it is reached via a long access track up the Dash Valley. Youth hostel in Rome. ...

Skiddaw's slopes are generally rounded and convex, looking from a distance as though a thick velvet blanket has been draped over a supporting frame. On the ridges the general terrain is of loose stones, but elsewhere all is grass and heather. Wainwright noted that "Its lines are smooth, its curves graceful; but because the slopes are steep everywhere, the quick build-up of the massif from valley levels to central summit is apreciated at a glance- and it should be an appreciative glance, for such massive strength and such beauty of outline rarely go together."^[1] Alfred Wainwright c. ...

Geology

The bedrock of Skiddaw, commonly known as Skiddaw Slate, is the Kirkstile Formation. This Ordovician rock is composed of laminated mudstone and siltstone with greywacke sandstone. At the summit this is overlain by scree and to the south are areas where the underlying Loweswater Formation surfaces. The Ordovician period is the second of the six (seven in North America) periods of the Paleozoic era. ... Mudstone is a fine-grained sedimentary rock whose original constituents were clays or muds. ... Siltstone Siltstone is a geological term for a sedimentary rock whose composition is intermediate in grain size between the coarser sandstone and the finer mudstone. ... Greywacke (German grauwacke, signifying a grey, earthy rock) is a variety of sandstone generally characterized by its hardness, dark color, and poorly-sorted, angular grains of quartz, feldspar, and small rock fragments set in a compact, clay-fine matrix. ... Scree or detritic cone is a term given to broken rock that appears at the bottom of crags, mountain cliffs or valley shoulders. ...

Summit and View

The summit ridge bears a number of tops, which from north to south are known ^[1][2] as North Top, High Man (the summit), Middle Top and South Top. All now bear cairns and a number of stone windshelters have been erected. Given the prevailing conditions these have a predominantly psychological value. Skiddaw has a subsidiary summit, Little Man, which lies about 1.5 km south-south-east of the main peak. Despite its limited independence, Wainwright listed it as a separate fell in his influential Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells, a convention which is often followed. For the magazine see Cairn Magazine. ... Skiddaw is a hill in the Lake District National Park in the United Kingdom. ... The Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells is a series of seven books detailing the fells (the local word for hills and mountains) of the English Lake District. ...

The view is as panoramic as might be expected, given Skiddaw's topographic prominence. From High Man the north east quadrant is filled by the quiet fells of Back o'Skiddaw, with the Pennines behind them. To the south east are Blencathra, the Far Eastern Fells and the Helvellyn range. On the other side of South Top is a fine view of the Scafells, Western and North Western Fells, while the final quarter is taken up by the coastal plain and the distant Solway Firth. By moving to South Top a superb view of Borrowdale can be brought into sight.^[1] In topography, prominence, also known as autonomous height, relative height or shoulder drop (in America) or prime factor (in Europe), is a concept used in the categorization of hills and mountains, also known as peaks. ... Typical Pennine scenery. ... Helvellyn range - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... Scafells is a collective term for the Scafell range of fells in the western English Lake District, including Scafell, Scafell Pike, Broad Crag and Ill Crag. ...

Ascents

Many routes of ascent have been devised for Skiddaw. The most popular ("tourist route") starts from Keswick and first ascends behind Latrigg, before the climb continues over the slopes of Little Man to the summit. This walk can be made considerably easier by driving to the top of Gale road and beginning from the public carpark just behind the summit of Latrigg.

Another popular route is to follow Longside Edge, first ascending Ullock Pike, Long Side and Carl Side before making the steep climb up from Carlside Col.

From the south west at Millbeck, Carlside Col can be reached direct. A start from nearby Applethwaite can also be used to provide a variation to the tourist route. From the northwest ascents can be made via Southerndale, or via the northern end of the Skiddaw ridge. Finally on the west the walker can first make for Skiddaw House, a fair step from either Keswick, Threlkeld or Peter House. Once Skiddaw House is reached a direct line is possible, climbing over either Sale How or Hare Crag.^[1] Threlkeld is a village in the north of the Lake District, to the east of Keswick, situated at grid reference NY322254. ...

From the north east an unmarked but fairly well-worn path starts at Whitewater Dash waterfall (on Cumbrian Way) where the walker can follow the fence (along Birkett Edge just south of Dead Crags) past the Bakestall outcrop, and follow the fence until just before the unnamed top at 831m. From the 831m top, a path is leading directly to Skiddaw Man.

See also

"Skiddaw" is also a former name for Mount Wellington, Tasmania, which also overlooks a River Derwent (River Derwent, Tasmania rather than River Derwent, Cumbria). Mount Wellington is the mountain on whose foothills is built much of the city of Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. ... The Derwent is a river in Tasmania, Australia. ... The Derwent is a river in the Lake District of the county of Cumbria in the north of England. ...

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e} Wainwright, Alfred: A Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells,Book 5 The Northern Fells: ISBN 0-7112-2458-7
2. ^ ^{a b} Birkett, Bill: Complete Lakeland Fells: Collins Willow (1994): ISBN 0-00-713629-3

Alfred Wainwright c. ... The Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells is a series of seven books detailing the fells (the local word for hills and mountains) of the English Lake District. ...

External links

• Maps and aerial photos
  • Surrounding area map from Google Maps
  • Detailed topography from Ordnance Survey Get-a-map
• Computer-generated virtual panoramas North South Index

Summit ridge of Skiddaw in winter This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ...

Skiddaw from Blencathra Image File history File links Photographer is Ann Bowker. ... Blencathra is one of the most northerly mountains in the Lake District, United Kingdom. ...