Great Shunner Fell

Great Shunner Fell is the third-highest mountain in the Yorkshire Dales, North Yorkshire, England, and the highest point in Wensleydale; at 716 metres above sea level. In clear weather the summit affords views of Wensleydale to the south, Ribblesdale to the southwest and Swaledale to the north, as well as views into Cumbria and County Durham beyond the A66. The Pennine Way passes over its summit, on the way from Hawes to Keld. The popularity of this route had eroded vegetation from a strip 70 m wide across the moor, which has been alleviated since 1996 by the construction of a path made of flagstones. The summit holds a cross-shaped windbreak of which the triangulation pillar has been built into the northern 'arm'. Great Sleddale Beck, which becomes the River Swale after its confluence with Birkdale Beck, has its sources on the northern slopes of Great Shunner Fell, while the southern slopes drain into the River Ure and Wensleydale. The dominating rock type in the area is limestone, but millstone grit outcrops extensively on Great Shunner Fell, and coal seams have also been worked on its slopes. Great Shunner Fell is the most southerly remaining outpost in Great Britain for the yellow marsh saxifrage, Saxifraga hirculus.

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List of peaks in the Yorkshire Dales

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Buttertubs Pass

The Buttertubs Pass is a high road in the Yorkshire Dales, England. The road winds its way north from Simonstone near Hawes towards Thwaite and Muker past 20-metre-deep (66 ft) limestone potholes called the Buttertubs. It is said that the name of the potholes came from the times when farmers would rest there on their way to market. During hot weather they would lower the butter they had produced into the potholes to keep it cool. The road is locally noted as a challenging cycle climb and featured as the second, and highest of three categorised climbs in Stage One of the 2014 Tour de France. The race was led over the climb by German veteran Jens Voigt, on his way to becoming the 2014 race's first wearer of the polka dot jersey as leader of the mountains classification. The climb was to be featured during the men's elite road race of the 2019 UCI Road World Championships, but the race had to be rerouted due to heavy rain. Jeremy Clarkson featured the road in the "Motoring and the New Romantics" episode of the British series Clarkson's Car Years. This road has also been used many times in the BBC's Top Gear series for test driving cars. The Buttertubs Pass is mentioned in the 1971 folk-rock song "The Gipsy", by Mr. Fox.

Hiking Landmark

Cotterdale

Cotterdale is a small side dale and hamlet on the north side of Wensleydale in North Yorkshire, England. The dale lies to the west of Great Shunner Fell. It is drained by East Gill and West Gill, which between them have nine waterfalls. They join to form Cotterdale Beck, which flows over three more waterfalls, including Cotter Force, below which the beck joins the River Ure. Historically it formed part of the North Riding of Yorkshire and the wapentake of Hang West.. From 1974 to 2023 it was part of the district of Richmondshire, it is now administered by the unitary North Yorkshire Council. It is part of the Yorkshire Dales National Park. The place name is thought to be derived from the Old Norse kotar, meaning "huts". An Iron Age sword, with bronze scabbard, was found in Cotterdale, and is now in the British Museum. A Primitive Methodist chapel existed in Cotterdale from 1835 to 1967; the chapel building is now a private house.

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Lovely Seat

Lovely Seat, originally known as Lunasett until being misnamed by map makers some time in the twentieth century, is a fell in the Yorkshire Dales National Park in North Yorkshire, England. It reaches a height of 675 metres (2,215 feet). It is situated at grid reference SD878950 three miles (five km) north of the town of Hawes, and is part of the high ground which separates Wensleydale from Swaledale. It is the highest point of Abbotside Common. The fell is separated from its neighbour to the west, Great Shunner Fell, by the Buttertubs Pass which carries the minor motor road between Hawes in Wensleydale and Thwaite in Swaledale. The name Lunasett derives from the Norse dialect moon pasture; Commoners of Abbotside still use the original name. The fell is very rarely climbed directly from the valley and is usually ascended from the top of the Buttertubs Pass in conjunction with nearby Great Shunner Fell. The latter is climbed first from Hawes or Thwaite using the Pennine Way, after which it is a short walk to descend to the top of the pass and then climb to the summit of Lovely Seat following a fence which helps navigation in bad conditions. The summit is adorned by a fair-sized cairn and a stone-built chair, and gives good views of the Yorkshire Three Peaks to the south. 300 metres west of the summit are a series of stone cairns which are clearly visible on the skyline when the fell is viewed from a distance.

Hiking Landmark

Hugh Seat

Hugh Seat is a mountain, or more accurately a fell, in Mallerstang on the eastern edge of Cumbria, England. It lies on the border between Cumbria and North Yorkshire. Hugh Seat is a high point above Black Fell Moss, an extensive area of peat bog drained by Red Gill Beck, which is the source of the River Eden. At this "watershed of England" two other great rivers, the Ure and the Swale, also rise within a kilometre of the Eden. Although it has a relatively small prominence, having several other high points nearby (and is therefore classified as a "sub-Hewitt" or a Nuttall but not a Marilyn), Hugh Seat nevertheless rises conspicuously above the source of the River Eden. The old name for this peak was Hugh Seat Morvill or sometimes Morvil Hill, (and Daniel Defoe confuses it with Wild Boar Fell in his "Tour"). Near the summit there is a column of cut stones, known as "Lady's Pillar", and the inscription AP1664 can just be made out – for Anne Pembroke, Lady Anne Clifford's married name. The pillar was erected in 1664 to commemorate Sir Hugh de Morville, Lady Anne's predecessor as Lord of the Manor of Mallerstang. (Sir Hugh was one of the four knights responsible for the murder of Archbishop St.Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral in 1170). The border between the counties of Cumbria and North Yorkshire is marked near the summit by a fence, which is intended to stop sheep which are "heafed" (trained to stay in a certain area without the need for fences) straying beyond their allotted common land. There are extensive views from the summit – south-east to Cotterdale and Wensleydale, north-west to Gregory Chapel, and west to Mallerstang and Wild Boar Fell. This rugged terrain between Great Shunner Fell and Wild Boar Fell, (part of what David Bellamy has called "the last wilderness in England"), is too inaccessible to be well known by tourists, but it is a favourite route for many walkers.