THE CENTRAL FELLS

'Similar in plan to the Eastern and the Far Eastern fells, the high ground of the central area of Lakeland is based on a north-south axis.  Deep valleys isolate the mass from the surrounding fells, there being a link with other mountainous terrain only at the Stake pass.  The north-south axis in its lower extremity twists eastwards in this case, however, the area assuming the shape of a jackboot, with Ambleside at the toe, Stake Pass forming the heel's curve, and the leg extending north, between the valleys of Borrowdale and Thirlmere, to the River Greta and Keswick.

The central part of mountainous country might generally be expected to contain the highest peaks, but that is not so here, for the watershed is overtopped on all sides by summits of greater elevation, and only at one point, High Raise, is an altitude of 2500' reached.  Nevertheless the central mass is not insignificant and indeed within its boundaries is one particular concentration of mountains, crowded into small space, that, for popular appeal and scenic attractiveness, ranks second to none: the Langdale Pikes.'
Alfred Wainwright The Central Fells

NB:  The heights of fells given in this table are those as recorded by Alfred Wainwright in his original set of Pictorial Guides and not the revised heights resurveyed by Ordnance Survey and printed on their latest 1:25000 Explorer maps.

* Walla Crag was my first Wainwright!

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Photographs taken with a Fuji MX-2900 Zoom or a Canon EOS 20D
Copyright © 2009 Derek Cockell     All Rights Reserved

THE PICTORIAL GUIDES

The Eastern Fells
The Far Eastern Fells
The Central Fells
The Southern Fells
The Northern Fells
The North Western Fells
The Western Fells

The 214 Challenge