High Seat (Yorkshire Dales)

High Seat is a fell in the dale of Mallerstang, Cumbria. With a summit at 709 metres (2,326 ft), it is the fourth highest fell in the Yorkshire Dales after Whernside, Ingleborough and Great Shunner Fell. It is in the north-western part of the Dales, overlooking the deep trench of Mallerstang, and is usually climbed from this side. To the south-east is Hugh Seat (whose summit is marked by Lady Anne's Pillar, commemorating Sir Hugh de Morville). On the opposite (western) side of Mallerstang is the more striking (but 1 metre lower) Wild Boar Fell. It is not a Marilyn, having a relative height of 112 m, and therefore may be regarded as a subsidiary top of Great Shunner Fell, to the east. It is, however, a HuMP. Oddly enough, it is the highest point on the main England east-to-west watershed in the Dales, the three higher fells being some distance from the watershed. Three main rivers have their origins in the peat bogs here: the River Eden, the River Swale, and the River Ure.

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Gregory Chapel

Gregory Chapel is one of the high points of the fells on the border between Cumbria and North Yorkshire. The summit is marked by a nearby sheep shelter and an unusual and conspicuous cairn - taller and more rectangular than most others locally. (This may, perhaps, be the origin of the curious name "chapel"?) The main rock in the area is limestone, with Millstone Grit outcrops on the tops. There are fine views over to Wild Boar Fell and Swarth Fell 5 km to the west, across the dale of Mallerstang. Hill walkers seem to prefer to give it the name Archy Styrigg; although Ordnance Survey maps show this name along the small plateau at about 680 m elevation to the southwest of the summit, leading over Mallerstang Edge. (This would fit the Norse name, characteristic of this area: sty = track or path, rigg = ridge: i.e. path along a ridge). It is classified as a Nuttall and sub-Hewitt, but it has a relatively small prominence, having several other high points nearby, and hardly merits being described as a peak. This high, boggy ground is really one great plateau which rarely drops much below 600 m (2000 ft) between Mallerstang Edge and Great Shunner Fell, 5.4 km to the south-east. Gregory Chapel is one of the three high points of Mallerstang Edge, the others being High Seat 1.04 km almost due north, and Hugh Seat 1.26 km SSE. They mark the eastern border of the Parish of Mallerstang, Cumbria - which is also the county border between Cumbria and North Yorkshire.

Outhgill

Outhgill is a hamlet in Mallerstang, Cumbria, England. It lies about 5 miles (8 km) south of Kirkby Stephen. It is the main hamlet in the dale of Mallerstang (a civil parish) which retains the Norse pattern of its original settlement: a series of small hamlets and isolated houses, with no village centre. In the 19th century, as the main hamlet at the centre of the dale, Outhgill had an inn, a post office, a smithy, the parish church and a Methodist chapel. Of these, only the church survives. St Mary's Church was founded by Lady Ideonea de Veteripont in the 14th century (possibly 1311) but was restored, in fact more or less rebuilt, in 1663 by Lady Anne Clifford, as the plaque above the door relates. The simple, dignified interior contains an 18th-century font, a faded coat of arms of Lady Anne from the year she restored the church, a set of shelves that used to hold the loaves of bread distributed weekly under Middleton's Charity, and kneelers embroidered by ladies of the dale. The stained glass windows all date from Victorian times or later. In the churchyard there are the unmarked graves of 25 of the builders of the Mallerstang section of the Settle-Carlisle Railway, and members of their families, who died during the construction of the line. A monument to them, marking the area where they are buried, was dedicated in 1997. Almost opposite the church is the former Wesleyan Chapel, built in 1878. There are about a dozen houses, including one where the father of the great scientist Michael Faraday was the blacksmith in the late 18th century (moving to London in the year Michael was born). The old pinfold contains a sculpture by Andy Goldsworthy. There is a replica of the "Jew Stone" on the village green. The original monument was set up by the rather eccentric William Mounsey in 1850 on Black Fell Moss below Hugh Seat, to mark the source of the River Eden. It got its name from the inscriptions in Greek and Hebrew. Pendragon Castle, reputedly founded by King Arthur's father, Uther Pendragon, is a mile or so to the north at grid reference NY779025. A smaller hamlet, Shoregill, is half a mile to the southwest at NY779014.

Mallerstang

Mallerstang is a civil parish in the extreme east of Cumbria, and, geographically, a dale at the head of the upper Eden Valley. Originally part of Westmorland, it lies about 6 miles (9.7 km) south of the nearest town, Kirkby Stephen. Its eastern edge, at Aisgill, borders on North Yorkshire; and since August 2016 it has been within the Yorkshire Dales National Park. At the 2011 census data for Wharton was included with Mallerstang, giving a total population of 173.

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Vale of Eden

The Vale of Eden is formed by the course of the River Eden, one of the major rivers of Northwest England. It is however of much greater extent than the actual valley of the river, lying between the Cumbrian Mountains (more usually referred to as the Lake District), and the northern part of the Pennis Range. It lies entirely within the county of Cumbria. The river has its source in the peat bogs below Hugh Seat, in the dale of Mallerstang. At first it heads off south (as Hellgill Beck) before turning back north for the rest of its course – except just before its outlet into the sea which it enters from the east. The Eden passes through the market towns of Kirkby Stephen and Appleby-in-Westmorland, once the county town of Westmorland. It then bypasses, but remains close to, Penrith where it receives the waters of Ullswater via the River Eamont, its major tributary. Via some ancient villages and fine bridges it reaches and passes through Carlisle, the major city in this whole area. It then enters the sea where, together with the River Esk, coming down from the North, it forms the Solway Firth which divides Scotland from England on the Atlantic side of the country. The whole area is gentle and pastoral, undulating and attractive but with bleak, barren and impressive hills on either side.