Flat Fell is a hill located on the edge of the English Lake District

Lake District

The Lake District, also commonly known as The Lakes or Lakeland, is a mountainous region in North West England. A popular holiday destination, it is famous not only for its lakes and its mountains but also for its associations with the early 19th century poetry and writings of William Wordsworth...

, standing at 272m. It is included in Alfred Wainwright

Alfred Wainwright

Alfred Wainwright MBE was a British fellwalker, guidebook author and illustrator. His seven-volume Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells, published between 1955 and 1966 and consisting entirely of reproductions of his manuscript, has become the standard reference work to 214 of the fells of the...

's Outlying Fells of Lakeland book, sharing a chapter with Dent

Dent (fell)

Dent is a small fell on the fringe of the English Lake District near the towns of Cleator Moor and Egremont. Sometimes known as Long Barrow, it is traditionally the first fell encountered by hikers following Wainwright's Coast to Coast Walk...

.

Topography

Flat Fell has an elongated, slug-shaped profile, with a steep slope known as Flatfell Screes at the Eastern end. Flatfell Screes forms the one side of the valley of the Nannycatch Beck, along which runs part of the Coast to Coast Walk

Coast to Coast Walk

The Coast to Coast Walk is a 192-mile unofficial and mostly unsignposted long distance footpath in Northern England...

. Unlike Dent, Flat Fell is not forested and is mostly covered by open grassland, grazed by sheep and horses. The Southern and Eastern slopes are carpeted with large areas of bracken

Bracken

Bracken are several species of large, coarse ferns of the genus Pteridium. Ferns are vascular plants that have alternating generations, large plants that produce spores and small plants that produce sex cells . Brackens are in the family Dennstaedtiaceae, which are noted for their large, highly...

 and Gorse

Gorse

Gorse, furze, furse or whin is a genus of about 20 plant species of thorny evergreen shrubs in the subfamily Faboideae of the pea family Fabaceae, native to western Europe and northwest Africa, with the majority of species in Iberia.Gorse is closely related to the brooms, and like them, has green...

 (Ulex europaeus).

Ascent

Flat fell is flanked by two rights of way; a bridleway along the Southern slope and a footpath along the Northern aspect. The latter links to the Fell Road at the Kinniside Stone Circle. Both tracks link together at the end of Nannycatch road, to the West. There are no distinct paths leading from either track to the summit.

Summit and Views

The Summit of Flat Fell is marked by a cairn (not present at the time of Wainwright's visit) and provides extensive views over West Cumbria

Cumbria

Cumbria , is a non-metropolitan county in North West England. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local authority, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. Cumbria's largest settlement and county town is Carlisle. It consists of six districts, and in...

 and the fells of Dent

Dent (fell)

Dent is a small fell on the fringe of the English Lake District near the towns of Cleator Moor and Egremont. Sometimes known as Long Barrow, it is traditionally the first fell encountered by hikers following Wainwright's Coast to Coast Walk...

, Grike

Grike (Lake District)

Grike is a hill in the west of the English Lake District, near Ennerdale Water. It is part of the Lank Rigg group, the most westerly Wainwright as the fells diminish toward the coastal plain...

, Blakeley Raise

Blakeley Raise

Blakeley Raise is a fell in the English Lake District, standing at 389m. Unlike its neighbours Grike, Crag Fell and Lank Rigg it is not listed as a Wainwright...

 and Lank Rigg

Lank Rigg

Lank Rigg is a fell in the English Lake District. It stands to the south of Ennerdale in the Western Fells. A sprawling hill with gentle grassy slopes it can be climbed from various points on the Coldfell road...