Lake District High Fells

Lake District High Fells is a Special Area of Conservation (SAC) in Cumbria, England, which was designated in 2005. It is a multi-site SAC with an area of 27,003.07 ha (104.2594 sq mi) consisting of 10 separate sites including the summit of Scafell Pike, which at 977 m (3,205 ft) is the highest mountain in England. The SAC takes its name from the English Lake District and "Fell", the local word for a mountain. It protects 16 habitat types listed in the European Union's Habitats Directive. As is usual with SACs in England, the protected areas are also covered by Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) designations. The ten component sites are as follows:

Armboth Fells SSSI Birk Fell SSSI Buttermere Fells SSSI Helvellyn & Fairfield SSSI Honister Crag SSSI Pillar & Ennerdale Fells SSSI Scafell Pikes SSSI Shap Fells SSSI Skiddaw Group SSSI Wasdale Screes SSSI (Wast Water is a separate SAC protecting the lake) Additionally:

River Derwent & Tributaries SSSI (overlaps the SAC) River Eden & Tributaries SSSI (overlaps the SAC)

1. Management issues

Much of the land is used as pasture. At the time the SAC was designated, the view was expressed that sheep grazing had had by far the biggest man-made impact on the condition of almost all of the features in the SAC. In places a problem of "inappropriate grazing" has been identified. Less than 1% of the SAC is woodland. The scarcity of trees is partly explained by the fact that some of the SAC lies above the tree line. In the Lake District the climatic tree line has been estimated to lie at about 535 m., but this would probably refer to isolated pioneers: the remnant woodlands are somewhat lower. However, there has clearly been major loss of tree cover. One of the SSSIs underpinning the SAC where there is semi-natural woodland is Pillar and Ennerdale Fells, which includes a wood rising above Ennerdale Water in an example of altitudinal succession. Ennerdale is also the home of a rewilding project. The SAC is within the Lake District National Park which has a duty to conserve and enhance the natural beauty, wildlife and cultural heritage of the area. However, its SSSIs have given cause for concern, as regards their condition, and their monitoring (in 2018 it was revealed in answer to a parliamentary question that English Nature had failed to inspect a number of SSSIs, including Scafell Pike, within the required six-year timescale. Budget cuts were blamed). Since the SAC was designated, the significance of the National Park as a cultural landscape has been endorsed by UNESCO, which gave World Heritage Site status to the Lake District in 2017. According to UNESCO, the "combined work of nature and human activity has produced a harmonious landscape". However, the sheep farming tradition is not without its critics. The environmentalist George Monbiot has described the High Fells as a "sheep museum".

1. References


1. External links

High Fells. JNCC

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Knott, Caldbeck

Knott is a mountain in the northern part of the English Lake District. It is the highest point of the Back o'Skiddaw region, an area of wild and unfrequented moorland to the north of Skiddaw and Blencathra. Other tops in this region include High Pike, Carrock Fell and Great Calva. The fell's slopes are mostly smooth, gentle, and covered in grass, with a few deep ravines. It stands a long way from a road and requires a long walk across the moor top get to it; this, as well as the fact that it is hidden from the rest of the Lake District by the two aforementioned giants, make it one of the most unfrequented tops in the Lakes. When it is climbed it is most often from Mungrisdale or from the north via Great Sca Fell. The word Knott is of Cumbric origin, and means simply "hill".

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Great Calva

Great Calva is a fell in the Lake District, England. It is in the Northern Fells, lying roughly at the centre of this region of high ground. As a result, it is distant from roads and quite remote by Lakeland standards. Great Calva stands at the head of a major geological fault running through the centre of the Lake District, and so from the summit it is possible to see all the way south over Thirlmere. The subsidiary summit of Little Calva lies to the west. It is in the centre of the Skiddaw Group SSSI.

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Skiddaw Group SSSI

Skiddaw Group SSSI is a site of special scientific interest in the Lake District High Fells, England. Its shape is approximately an irregular circle centred near Great Calva, with an area of 10,256.3 hectares (39.600 sq mi). The high ground creates a watershed between the Caldew Operational Catchment with water flowing north towards Carlisle, and the Ellen and West Coast and Derwent Operational Catchments flowing towards the west coast at Workington and Maryport. The area includes the Skiddaw Forest nature reserve. The SSSI is designated for its flora and fauna, and for its geology. The geology includes the Skiddaw Group of sedimentary rock formations, and the Caldbeck Fells former mining area. Fells above 2,000 feet (610 m) include High Pike, Carrock Fell, Knott, Great Calva, and Bowscale Fell. The highest peaks are in the Skiddaw area, including Skiddaw itself, Long Side, Carl Side, Little Man, Lonscale Fell and, further east, Blencathra. The SSSI is divided into a patchwork of "units" which are used as the level of geographic detail for reporting overall features and conditions. Each unit is identified by the Ordnance Survey grid reference at the centre of the unit, its area in hectares, the date it was last surveyed, and the drainage catchment it is located in. For example Bassenthwaite Common, which is unit 27, is nearly 700 ha (2.7 sq mi) centred at NY252299 in the Dash beck catchment. The habitat is there is dwarf shrub heath which, when surveyed in November 2010, was in an "unfavourable – recovering" condition.

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Great Sca Fell

Great Sca Fell is a fell in the English Lake District, seven kilometres (4+1⁄2 miles) southwest of the village of Caldbeck. It is the highest of the four Uldale Fells, the other three being Longlands Fell, Meal Fell and Great Cockup. It is a Wainwright, and the lowest of the lakeland "Sca fells", the other two being Scafell and Scafell Pike.

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