Muncaster Fell
Encyclopedia
Muncaster Fell is a fell
at the far western edge of the Lake District
National Park
, in Cumbria
, England
. Muncaster Fell is a long, narrow ridge of land, approximately 1.2 km wide and 6 km long, lying between the River Mite
to the north, and River Esk
to the south. The fell rises from the coast near Ravenglass
village to its highest point at Hooker Crag (231 m). The ridge then continues to the north-east, dropping gently to its furthest prominence at Silver Knott (174 m). The fell then falls away rapidly to the village of Eskdale Green
at its north-eastern tip.
. The north-western slopes of the fell are characterised by steep crags and scree
slopes, which drop abruptly to the fluvial
floor of the Mite valley. The narrow-gauge Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway
tracks cling to the lower sides of this rocky face. The south-eastern, Eskdale slopes are not much less steep, but are shallow enough to allow the cultivation of a number of forestry plantations. Woodland abounds at the southernmost tip of the fell, with both natural deciduous
woodland and invasive rhododendron
stands competing for space. On the very south-western point of the fell stands Muncaster Castle
, its grounds planted with a wide variety of plant species, including a dense copse of bamboo
.
On the fell top the vegetation and landscape typifies the Cumbrian fell. A small tarn
, Muncaster Tarn (GR: SD107978), sits amongst woodland on the slopes below the top of Hooker Crag. Much of the area between the crags and bogs is covered by moss
, gorse
, sedge
and small clumps of bilberry
bushes. In recent times, in common with much of the Lake District upland area, bracken
has begun to take over, possibly due to a reduction in the number of sheep grazing on upland pasture.
Along the southern end of the fell ridge runs a straight track, climbing up past the tarn toward Hooker Crag. This is part of a Roman road
which used to connect the large fort of Glannaventa near Ravenglass on the coast, approximately 2 km away, to the garrison at Hardknott Fort
(know to the Romans as Mediobogdum), 14 km to the north-east. Although the rest of the route along the ridge top has been lost, there is a small, low dolmen
, which despite its stone age appearance is inscribed Ross's Camp 1883 on the top surface (GR: SD121987).
and microgranite, belonging to the Ordovician
Eskdale Group. At the south-western end of the fell, between Ravenglass village and Muncaster Castle
, is a restricted outcrop of hornfels
ed lower Ordovician siltstone
s and sandstone
s, belonging to the Skiddaw Group
, and andesite
of the Borrowdale Volcanic Group.
Owing to its relatively steep-sided profile the fell is largely free of drift geology
. The lowest slopes are generally covered in glacial
diamicton
derived from the igneous lithologies
nearer the centre of the Lake District, and the steeper crags give rise to localised scree
deposits. Between the crags along the top of the ridge small peat
bogs are developed, the largest of these being Hooker Moss (GR: SD113984).
Fell
“Fell” is a word used to refer to mountains, or certain types of mountainous landscape, in Scandinavia, the Isle of Man, and parts of northern England.- Etymology :...
at the far western edge of the 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...
National Park
National parks of the United Kingdom
National parks of the United Kingdom are a devolved matter with each of the countries of the United Kingdom having its own policies and arrangements. There are 15 of these managed areas of outstanding landscape where habitation and commercial activities are restricted, with 10 in England, 3 in...
, in 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...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. Muncaster Fell is a long, narrow ridge of land, approximately 1.2 km wide and 6 km long, lying between the River Mite
River Mite
The River Mite is a river in the county of Cumbria in northern England.The valley through which the river Mite runs is called Miterdale. The name Mite is thought to be of British origin and related to a root such as 'meigh': to urinate or dribble, possibly a wry reflection of the relatively minor...
to the north, and River Esk
River Esk, Cumbria
The River Esk is a river in the Lake District in Cumbria, England. It is one of two River Esks in Cumbria, and not to be confused with the River Esk which flows on the Scottish side of the border....
to the south. The fell rises from the coast near Ravenglass
Ravenglass
Ravenglass is a small coastal village and natural harbour in Cumbria, England. It is the only coastal town within the Lake District National Park...
village to its highest point at Hooker Crag (231 m). The ridge then continues to the north-east, dropping gently to its furthest prominence at Silver Knott (174 m). The fell then falls away rapidly to the village of Eskdale Green
Eskdale Green
Eskdale Green is a village in Cumbria, England, 10 miles west of Coniston. It lies off the A595 road and is one of the few settlements in Eskdale.The village is centred around the small St. Bega's Church and hall...
at its north-eastern tip.
Landscape
The fell forms a long, low, yet steep-sided ridge that separates the southern portions of the valleys of Miterdale and EskdaleEskdale, Cumbria
Eskdale is a glacial valley and civil parish in the western Lake District National Park in Cumbria, England. It forms part of the Borough of Copeland, and has a population of 264....
. The north-western slopes of the fell are characterised by steep crags and scree
Scree
Scree, also called talus, is a term given to an accumulation of broken rock fragments at the base of crags, mountain cliffs, or valley shoulders. Landforms associated with these materials are sometimes called scree slopes or talus piles...
slopes, which drop abruptly to the fluvial
Fluvial
Fluvial is used in geography and Earth science to refer to the processes associated with rivers and streams and the deposits and landforms created by them...
floor of the Mite valley. The narrow-gauge Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway
Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway
The Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway is a minimum gauge heritage railway in Cumbria, England. The line runs from Ravenglass to Dalegarth Station near Boot in the valley of Eskdale, in the Lake District...
tracks cling to the lower sides of this rocky face. The south-eastern, Eskdale slopes are not much less steep, but are shallow enough to allow the cultivation of a number of forestry plantations. Woodland abounds at the southernmost tip of the fell, with both natural deciduous
Deciduous
Deciduous means "falling off at maturity" or "tending to fall off", and is typically used in reference to trees or shrubs that lose their leaves seasonally, and to the shedding of other plant structures such as petals after flowering or fruit when ripe...
woodland and invasive rhododendron
Rhododendron
Rhododendron is a genus of over 1 000 species of woody plants in the heath family, most with showy flowers...
stands competing for space. On the very south-western point of the fell stands Muncaster Castle
Muncaster Castle
Muncaster Castle is a privately owned castle overlooking the Esk river, about a mile south of the west-coastal town of Ravenglass in Cumbria, England.-History:...
, its grounds planted with a wide variety of plant species, including a dense copse of bamboo
Bamboo
Bamboo is a group of perennial evergreens in the true grass family Poaceae, subfamily Bambusoideae, tribe Bambuseae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family....
.
On the fell top the vegetation and landscape typifies the Cumbrian fell. A small tarn
Tarn (lake)
A tarn is a mountain lake or pool, formed in a cirque excavated by a glacier. A moraine may form a natural dam below a tarn. A corrie may be called a cirque.The word is derived from the Old Norse word tjörn meaning pond...
, Muncaster Tarn (GR: SD107978), sits amongst woodland on the slopes below the top of Hooker Crag. Much of the area between the crags and bogs is covered by moss
Moss
Mosses are small, soft plants that are typically 1–10 cm tall, though some species are much larger. They commonly grow close together in clumps or mats in damp or shady locations. They do not have flowers or seeds, and their simple leaves cover the thin wiry stems...
, 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...
, sedge
Cyperaceae
Cyperaceae are a family of monocotyledonous graminoid flowering plants known as sedges, which superficially resemble grasses or rushes. The family is large, with some 5,500 species described in about 109 genera. These species are widely distributed, with the centers of diversity for the group...
and small clumps of bilberry
Bilberry
Bilberry is any of several species of low-growing shrubs in the genus Vaccinium , bearing edible berries. The species most often referred to is Vaccinium myrtillus L., but there are several other closely related species....
bushes. In recent times, in common with much of the Lake District upland area, 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...
has begun to take over, possibly due to a reduction in the number of sheep grazing on upland pasture.
Along the southern end of the fell ridge runs a straight track, climbing up past the tarn toward Hooker Crag. This is part of a Roman road
Roman road
The Roman roads were a vital part of the development of the Roman state, from about 500 BC through the expansion during the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire. Roman roads enabled the Romans to move armies and trade goods and to communicate. The Roman road system spanned more than 400,000 km...
which used to connect the large fort of Glannaventa near Ravenglass on the coast, approximately 2 km away, to the garrison at Hardknott Fort
Hardknott Roman Fort
Mediobogdum was a fort in the Roman province of Britannia. Its remains are located on the western side of the Hardknott Pass in the English county of Cumbria .-The location and name:...
(know to the Romans as Mediobogdum), 14 km to the north-east. Although the rest of the route along the ridge top has been lost, there is a small, low dolmen
Dolmen
A dolmen—also known as a portal tomb, portal grave, dolmain , cromlech , anta , Hünengrab/Hünenbett , Adamra , Ispun , Hunebed , dös , goindol or quoit—is a type of single-chamber megalithic tomb, usually consisting of...
, which despite its stone age appearance is inscribed Ross's Camp 1883 on the top surface (GR: SD121987).
Geology
Muncaster Fell is composed almost entirely of graniteGranite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...
and microgranite, belonging to the Ordovician
Ordovician
The Ordovician is a geologic period and system, the second of six of the Paleozoic Era, and covers the time between 488.3±1.7 to 443.7±1.5 million years ago . It follows the Cambrian Period and is followed by the Silurian Period...
Eskdale Group. At the south-western end of the fell, between Ravenglass village and Muncaster Castle
Muncaster Castle
Muncaster Castle is a privately owned castle overlooking the Esk river, about a mile south of the west-coastal town of Ravenglass in Cumbria, England.-History:...
, is a restricted outcrop of hornfels
Hornfels
Hornfels is the group designation for a series of contact metamorphic rocks that have been baked and indurated by the heat of intrusive igneous masses and have been rendered...
ed lower Ordovician siltstone
Siltstone
Siltstone is a sedimentary rock which has a grain size in the silt range, finer than sandstone and coarser than claystones.- Description :As its name implies, it is primarily composed of silt sized particles, defined as grains 1/16 - 1/256 mm or 4 to 8 on the Krumbein phi scale...
s and sandstone
Sandstone
Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...
s, belonging to the Skiddaw Group
Skiddaw Group
For the Skiddaw group of hills, see Skiddaw GroupThe Skiddaw Group is a group of sedimentary rock formations named after the mountain Skiddaw in the English Lake District. The rocks are Ordovician in age. They are largely mudstones and siltstones with subordinate wacke-type sandstones...
, and andesite
Andesite
Andesite is an extrusive igneous, volcanic rock, of intermediate composition, with aphanitic to porphyritic texture. In a general sense, it is the intermediate type between basalt and dacite. The mineral assemblage is typically dominated by plagioclase plus pyroxene and/or hornblende. Magnetite,...
of the Borrowdale Volcanic Group.
Owing to its relatively steep-sided profile the fell is largely free of drift geology
Drift (geology)
In geology, drift is the name for all material of glacial origin found anywhere on land or at sea , including sediment and large rocks...
. The lowest slopes are generally covered in glacial
Glacier
A glacier is a large persistent body of ice that forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. At least 0.1 km² in area and 50 m thick, but often much larger, a glacier slowly deforms and flows due to stresses induced by its weight...
diamicton
Diamicton
In geology, diamicton is a very poorly sorted sediment. Large sedimentary grains gravel size and larger are set in a matrix of fine grains....
derived from the igneous lithologies
Lithology
The lithology of a rock unit is a description of its physical characteristics visible at outcrop, in hand or core samples or with low magnification microscopy, such as colour, texture, grain size, or composition. It may be either a detailed description of these characteristics or be a summary of...
nearer the centre of the Lake District, and the steeper crags give rise to localised scree
Scree
Scree, also called talus, is a term given to an accumulation of broken rock fragments at the base of crags, mountain cliffs, or valley shoulders. Landforms associated with these materials are sometimes called scree slopes or talus piles...
deposits. Between the crags along the top of the ridge small peat
Peat
Peat is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation matter or histosol. Peat forms in wetland bogs, moors, muskegs, pocosins, mires, and peat swamp forests. Peat is harvested as an important source of fuel in certain parts of the world...
bogs are developed, the largest of these being Hooker Moss (GR: SD113984).