The Howgill Fells are uplands in Northern England between the Lake District and the Yorkshire Dales, lying roughly within a triangle formed by the town of Sedbergh and the villages of Ravenstonedale and Tebay. [1] The name Howgill derives from the Old Norse word haugr meaning a hill or barrow, plus gil meaning a narrow valley. [2]
The Howgill Fells are bounded by the River Lune (and the M6 motorway to the west), to the north by upper reaches of the River Lune, and to the east by the River Rawthey. [3] [4]
The fells include two Marilyns: The Calf –2,218 ft (676 m) and Yarlside –2,096 ft (639 m) and a number of smaller peaks, including five Hewitts. Since 2017, the entire range has been included within the Yorkshire Dales National Park. [5] They lie within Westmorland and Furness and are shared by the historic counties of Yorkshire (West Riding) and Westmorland. [6]
Unlike the Carboniferous Limestone landscapes typical of much of the Yorkshire Dales and Orton Fells, the range is formed from lower Palaeozoic slates and gritstones. An inlier of Ashgill age rocks of the Ordovician Dent Group in the vicinity of Backside Beck in the east [7] are the oldest rocks in the range whilst the oldest Silurian rocks are the laminated siltstones of the Llandovery age Stockdale Group. These are overlain by more than 250m thickness of dark grey mudstones and siltstones of the Brathay Formation which, with the overlying Coldwell and Wray Castle formations are collected together as the Tranearth Group and, in age terms, span the Wenlock / Ludlow boundary. The larger part of the range is formed from sandstones of the Coniston Group. This unit is roughly 1000m thick; it includes a basal Screes Gill Formation up to 300m thick and also contains numerous siltstone bands. These are overlain by the sandstones, mudstones and siltstones of the Bannisdale and Kirkby Moor formations, collected together as the Kendal Group. [8]
Structurally the bedrock is folded on a broad scale into a roughly east–west aligned Carlingill Anticline with the Castle Knotts Syncline to its south. Numerous smaller amplitude folds are developed on the limbs of these two folds. A series of normal faults aligned between N-S and NE-SW cut the range whilst its eastern and southeastern margin is defined by a combination of the Sedbergh, Rawthey and Dent faults.
Quaternary deposits include widespread glacial till in the valleys and on lower ground generally. Though the range was covered by the British ice-sheet during successive glaciations, Cautley Crag is the only well-developed glacial cirque within the Howgill Fells. Post-glacial river sands and gravels are found on the floor of river valleys, notably on the margins of the range. Peat is found on some hill spurs but is not widely developed whilst scree is found in places, notably around the Cautley Spout area. Debris cones of cobbles are found, notably in Langdale and Bowderdale. [9] [10] The Lune Gorge which defines the western edge of the Howgills is a major glacial meltwater channel.
The Yorkshire Dales National Park is a 2,178 km2 (841 sq mi) national park in England which covers most of the Yorkshire Dales, the Howgill Fells, and the Orton Fells. The Nidderdale area of the Yorkshire Dales is not within the national park, and has instead been designated a national landscape. Most of the park is within North Yorkshire, with a sizeable area in Cumbria and a small part in Lancashire. The park was designated in 1954, and extended in 2016. More than 95% of the land in the park is privately owned; there are over 1,000 farms in this area.
Sedbergh is a town and civil parish in the ceremonial county of Cumbria. It falls within the historic boundaries of the West Riding of Yorkshire. Since April 2023, it has been administered by Westmorland and Furness local authority. The 2001 census gave the parish a population of 2,705, increasing at the 2011 census to 2,765. It lies about 10 miles (16 km) east of Kendal, 28 miles (45 km) north of Lancaster and about 10 miles (16 km) north of Kirkby Lonsdale, within the Yorkshire Dales National Park. It stands at the foot of Howgill Fells, on the north bank of the River Rawthey, which joins the River Lune 2 miles (3 km) below the town.
Clough Head is a fell, or hill, in the English Lake District. It marks the northern end of the main ridge of the Helvellyn range and is often walked as part of the ridge walk. The fell stands south of the village of Threlkeld and the A66 road, and it forms the steep eastern side of the tranquil valley of St John's in the Vale.
The geology of the county of Shropshire, England is very diverse with a large number of periods being represented at outcrop. The bedrock consists principally of sedimentary rocks of Palaeozoic and Mesozoic age, surrounding restricted areas of Precambrian metasedimentary and metavolcanic rocks. The county hosts in its Quaternary deposits and landforms, a significant record of recent glaciation. The exploitation of the Coal Measures and other Carboniferous age strata in the Ironbridge area made it one of the birthplaces of the Industrial Revolution. There is also a large amount of mineral wealth in the county, including lead and baryte. Quarrying is still active, with limestone for cement manufacture and concrete aggregate, sandstone, greywacke and dolerite for road aggregate, and sand and gravel for aggregate and drainage filters. Groundwater is an equally important economic resource.
Mellbreak is a hill in the Western part of the English Lake District. Despite being surrounded on all sides by higher fells, it stands in isolation. It is surrounded on three sides by a "moat" of deep marshy land, and on the east side by the lake of Crummock Water. The fell forms a partnership with the lake, running parallel to it, falling sheer into it, and regularly providing the backdrop for pictures of it.
The Calf, at an elevation of 676 metres (2,218 ft), is the highest point in the Howgill Fells, an area of high ground in north-west England. It is in the north-west of the Yorkshire Dales in Westmorland and Furness in the county of Cumbria. It can be ascended from the town of Sedbergh to the south, by way of Cautley Spout from the east, or up the long valley of Langdale from the north. The Sedbergh ascent is the most popular, and has the distinction of being on good paths all the way.
The Clough River is a river in Cumbria, England. A tributary of the River Rawthey, it flows for 21.8 kilometres (13.5 mi) primarily through the Garsdale valley.
Garsdale is a dale or valley in the south east of Cumbria, England, historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire. It is now within the Westmorland and Furness local government district, and in the Yorkshire Dales National Park for planning purposes. In the 2001 census the parish had a population of 202, decreasing at the 2011 census to 191.
The geology of Lancashire in northwest England consists in the main of Carboniferous age rocks but with Triassic sandstones and mudstones at or near the surface of the lowlands bordering the Irish Sea though these are largely obscured by Quaternary deposits.
The geology of Lincolnshire in eastern England largely consists of an easterly dipping succession of Mesozoic age sedimentary rocks, obscured across large parts of the county by unconsolidated deposits dating from the last few hundred thousand years of the present Quaternary Period.
The geology of Merseyside in northwest England largely consists of a faulted sequence of Carboniferous Coal Measures rocks overlain in the west by younger Triassic and Permian age sandstones and mudstones. Glaciation during the present Quaternary Period has left widespread glacial till as well as erosional landforms. Other post-glacial superficial deposits such as river and estuarine alluvium, peat and blown sand are abundant.
The Dent Group is a group of Upper Ordovician sedimentary and volcanic rocks in north-west England. It is the lowermost part of the Windermere Supergroup, which was deposited in the foreland basin formed during the collision between Laurentia and Avalonia. It lies unconformably on the Borrowdale Volcanic Group. This unit was previously known as the Coniston Limestone Group or Coniston Limestone Formation and should not be confused with the significantly younger Coniston Group.
A Dales High Way is a long-distance footpath in northern England. It is 90 miles (140 km) long and runs from Saltaire in West Yorkshire to Appleby-in-Westmorland, Cumbria, roughly parallel to the line of the Settle and Carlisle Railway.
The Kendal Group is a Silurian lithostratigraphic group in the southern Lake District and the Howgill Fells of northern England. The name is derived from the town of Kendal in Cumbria. The Group is included within the Windermere Supergroup. The group comprises couplets of siltstone and mudstone along with some turbiditic sandstones and which may exceed a thickness of 4200m. Its lower unit is the Bannisdale Formation above which is the Kirkby Moor Formation. Some of the rocks of the latter were earlier included in the Underbarrow and Scout Hill Flag formations.
The geology of national parks in Britain strongly influences the landscape character of each of the fifteen such areas which have been designated. There are ten national parks in England, three in Wales and two in Scotland. Ten of these were established in England and Wales in the 1950s under the provisions of the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949. With one exception, all of these first ten, together with the two Scottish parks were centred on upland or coastal areas formed from Palaeozoic rocks. The exception is the North York Moors National Park which is formed from sedimentary rocks of Jurassic age.
The geology of Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park in the southwestern part of the Scottish Highlands consists largely of Neoproterozoic and Palaeozoic bedrock faulted and folded and subjected to low grade metamorphism during the Caledonian orogeny. These older rocks, assigned to the Dalradian Supergroup, lie to the northwest of the northeast – southwest aligned Highland Boundary Fault which defines the southern edge of the Highlands. A part of this mountainous park extends south of this major geological divide into an area characterised by younger Devonian rocks which are assigned to the Old Red Sandstone.
The geology of Exmoor National Park in south-west England contributes significantly to the character of Exmoor, a landscape which was designated as a national park in 1954. The bedrock of the area consists almost wholly of a suite of sedimentary rocks deposited during the Devonian, a period named for the English county of Devon in which the western half of the park sits. The eastern part lies within Somerset and it is within this part of the park that limited outcrops of Triassic and Jurassic age rocks are to be found.
The geology of Northumberland National Park in northeast England includes a mix of sedimentary, intrusive and extrusive igneous rocks from the Palaeozoic and Cenozoic eras. Devonian age volcanic rocks and a granite pluton form the Cheviot massif. The geology of the rest of the national park is characterised largely by a thick sequence of sedimentary rocks of Carboniferous age. These are intruded by Permian dykes and sills, of which the Whin Sill makes a significant impact in the south of the park. Further dykes were intruded during the Palaeogene period. The whole is overlain by unconsolidated sediments from the last ice age and the post-glacial period.
The geology of the Yorkshire Dales National Park in northern England largely consists of a sequence of sedimentary rocks of Ordovician to Permian age. The core area of the Yorkshire Dales is formed from a layer-cake of limestones, sandstones and mudstones laid down during the Carboniferous period. It is noted for its karst landscape which includes extensive areas of limestone pavement and large numbers of caves including Britain's longest cave network.
Grisedale is a south east facing Dale in Cumbria, England, 8 miles (13 km) east of Sedbergh, and 7 miles (11 km) west of Hawes. Grisedale Beck, which drains Baugh Fell, flows down the dale eastwards, and on reaching the valley floor at Garsdale, forms the River Clough before turning westwards towards the Irish Sea. A small part of the north-eastern side of the dale is in North Yorkshire, however, until 1974, all of the area around, and including Grisedale, was part of the West Riding of Yorkshire. The dale was largely depopulated of its working farmers during the 20th century, however, some of the houses have been re-occupied by non-agricultural inhabitants.