| Great Mell Fell | |
|---|---|
 Great Mell Fell seen from Gowbarrow Fell | |
| Highest point | |
| Elevation | 537 m (1,762 ft) |
| Prominence | 198 m (650 ft) |
| Parent peak | Helvellyn |
| Listing | Marilyn (hill),Wainwright |
| Coordinates | 54°37′12″N2°55′59″W / 54.62°N 2.933°W /54.62; -2.933 |
| Naming | |
| English translation | Large bare hill |
| Language of name | Brittonic (Cumbric),English |
| Pronunciation | /ˌɡreɪtˌmɛlˈfɛl/ |
| Geography | |
| Location | Cumbria,England |
| Parent range | Lake District,Eastern Fells |
| OS grid | NY397254 |
| Topo map | OSExplorer OL5,Landranger 90 |
Great Mell Fell (Bare hill, with the later additions of both "Fell" and "Great") is an isolatedhill orfell in the EnglishLake District, north ofUllswater and adjacent to theEastern Fells. It rises from a level plain to a height of 537 m. Its top is a viewpoint for many of the surrounding higher fells. The fell is now owned and managed by the National Trust and offers a place of quiet refuge.
The fell was once well wooded, and retains a good covering of trees on the lower slopes, as well as scattered larches and pines higher up. Its rock is unusual for the Lake District, a reddish conglomerate of Devonian age, which has been eroded to form a rounded hill with smooth outlines and no rocky crags.
The name of the hill is first attested in 1279, asMelfel. The first known example of the name with the additionGreat, distinguishing it fromLittle Mell Fell, isGreat mele Fell from 1487; it is also found under the nameWestermellfell in 1589, since it lies to the west of Little Mell Fell; likewise Greenwood's map of 1823 distinguishes them asWest andEast Mell Fell. The first element of the name derives from theCommon Brittonic word found in modern Welsh asmoel ("bare"), and this must once have constituted the whole name of the hill. As English became the dominant language of the area, the English wordfell ("hill") was added.[1]: 234
Fell is a local dialect word with several meanings, from either Old Norsefell, 'hill, mountain', or Old Norsefjall, 'mountainous country'.Fell is very common in Lake District place-names, some of which, likeMell Fell, are ancient, though many others are much more modern.[1]: 397
Great Mell Fell is an isolated hill which rises abruptly from a wide expanse of marshy lowland to a height of 537 m. The fell has smooth, rounded outlines with no crags. Rock is represented only by a number of large erratic boulders, mainly on the north slopes, but also by the Cloven Stone near a barn to the south of the fell.[2]
The hill is triangular in plan (indeed, it is almost the shape of a broad arrow-head) with the apex pointing west, down the steep "nose" of the fell, and with the gentler, broader eastern slopes divided by two shallow valleys which drain into the Wham Sike and Routing Gill Beck.[3]
Great Mell Fell lies on thewatershed between the Derwent river system to the west and the Eden system to the east. This watershed is formed by a low ridge, barely perceptible in places, which connects the Northern and Eastern Fells. From Bowscale Fell it runs across Eycott Hill to Great Mell Fell, then over Cockley Moor to High Brow and up the north-east ridge of Great Dodd, to join the main ridge on the Helvellyn range. Thus the eastern sides of the fell drain eventually into the River Eden via Dacre Beck and the River Eamont, while the western parts drain through Keswick via Trout Beck, the River Glenderamackin and the River Greta to the Derwent.[3]
Great Mell Fell is a quiet place of refuge within the surrounding agricultural land, for wildlife as well as for walkers. The sheltered lower eastern slopes are well covered by mixed woods of oak, rowan, birch, holly and Scots pine. Within the trees badgers and roe deer live, and green woodpeckers nest.[4]: 164 It is said that the lastwild cat inCumberland was snared here in the nineteenth century.[2]
Higher up the fell an old planting of Scots pine straddles the eastern ridge, and contorted wind-blown larches grow higher still, some blown almost horizontal. The trees give a glimpse of what other fells may have looked like in better-wooded times.[2] A nineteenth-century guidebook claims that larch was planted all over the fell.[5] However the fell’s name suggests that it was treeless in first millennium Celtic-speaking times.
Clumps of tough grass and occasional clumps of heather cover the highest parts, where occasional red grouse may nest.[2]
The summit is crowned by a low mound, marked as atumulus on the Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Explorer map.[3] This is probably a smallBronze Age burial mound. A small cairn has been built on top of it,[2] but was not there in the 1950s, when a dead tree trunk marked the spot.[6]
The isolated position of the fell makes it a splendid viewpoint.Blencathra and the Dodds dominate the view towards the west, while to the south is an impressive vista of both the Far Eastern and the Eastern Fells, as far as Red Screes and theKirkstone Pass. To the east, beyondLittle Mell Fell there is a clear view across the Eden Valley to the north Pennines.[2][6]
Great Mell Fell is now owned and managed by theNational Trust. The whole fell is nowopen access land.[3]
Access to the fell may be gained from near Brownrigg Farm on the minor road between Matterdale End and the A66 road, or from just south of Troutbeck on the A5091 road, along the disused rifle range. Paths just inside the boundary fence allow a circuit of the fell. The western end of the fell offers a very steep but grassy climb to the top. A gentler ascent follows a used path from the south-eastern corner and along the east ridge.[2]
There is a disused rifle range to the north-west of the fell. The target control building may still be seen.[2] This was in use from the late 1890s, then by the War Department (now the Ministry of Defence) during the war years and into the 1950s. As a result, access to the whole fell was prohibited at the time by red danger signs. Alfred Wainwright includes a drawing of one of the signs in his 1955 guide book, but he himself apparently ignored the warnings and explored the fell anyway. Careful examination of the exposed soil in the butts will still reveal dead 303 rounds from the era[6]
Both Great and Little Mell Fells are unique among the fells of the Lake District by being composed of theMell Fell Conglomerate, asedimentary rock formed from deposits of sand and gravel in alluvial fans and braided river channels in a desert environment. The rock contains no fossils. The stones in the conglomerate came from the erosion of both theBorrowdale Volcanic Group and theWindermere Supergroup. The reddish-coloured rock appears to date from the lateDevonian Period, sometime around 375 million years ago.[7] The erosion of this conglomerate has formed the smooth and rounded outlines that are distinctive of the two Mell Fells. While there are no crags on Great Mell Fell, boulders of the conglomerate may be seen in places, especially on the north slope, and it may also be seen in the two stream beds.
This Devonian conglomerate rests on theBirker Fell Andesite Formation, a thick sequence ofandesite lava flows from theOrdovician Period, about 450 million years ago, and part of the Borrowdale Volcanic Group. This rock may be seen at the foot of the fell in the south-east corner, where a small quarry (at the beginning of the path along the south side of the fell) has extracted a little of this andesite.[8][9]
Rocks of the Devonian Period are also referred to as theOld Red Sandstone. These should be distinguished from the youngerNew Red Sandstone of thePermian Period, found nearby in Penrith and the Eden Valley.
Marilyns of Northern England | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1. Northumberland |  | |
| 2. Northern Lakeland | ||
| 3. Western Lakeland | ||
| 4. Central and Southern Lakeland | ||
| 5. Eastern Lakeland | ||
| 6. North Pennines and Durham | ||
| 7. Northern Yorkshire Dales | ||
| 8. Southern Yorkshire Dales | ||
| 9. North York Moors to the Humber | ||
| 10. Forest of Bowland | ||
