Fell - England

England

In Northern England, especially in the Lake District and in the Pennine Dales, the word fell originally referred to an area of uncultivated high ground used as common grazing. This meaning is found in the names of various breeds of livestock, bred for life on the uplands, such as Rough Fell sheep and fell ponies. It is also found in many place names across the North of England, often attached to the name of a community; thus Seathwaite Fell, for example, would be the common grazing land used by the farmers of Seathwaite. The fellgate marks the exit from a settlement onto the fell (see photograph for example).

"Fell" can refer to any one of the mountains and hills of the Lake District and the Pennine Dales. This meaning tends to overlap with the previous one, especially where place names are concerned: in particular, names that originally referred to grazing areas tend to be applied to hilltops, as is the case with the aforementioned Seathwaite Fell. In other cases the reverse is true; for instance, the name of Wetherlam, in the Coniston Fells, though understood to refer to the mountain as a whole, strictly speaking refers to the summit; the slopes have names such as Tilberthwaite High Fell, Low Fell and Above Beck Fells.

In northern England, there is a Lord of the Fells - this ancient aristocratic title being associated with the Lords of Bowland in north-eastern Lancashire.

Groups of cairns are a common feature on many fells, often marking the summit — there are fine examples on Wild Boar Fell in Mallerstang Dale, Cumbria, and on Nine Standards Rigg just outside Kirkby Stephen, Cumbria.

As the most mountainous region of England, the Lake District is the area most closely associated with the sport of fell running, which takes its name from the fells of the district. "Fellwalking" is also the term used locally for the activity known in the rest of Great Britain as hillwalking.

The word "fell" also enjoys limited use in Scotland, with for example the Campsie Fells in Central Scotland, to the North East of Glasgow. One of the most famous examples of the use of the word "fell" in Scotland is Goat Fell, the highest point on the Isle of Arran. Criffel and the nearby Long Fell in Galloway may be seen from the northern Lake District of England. Peel Fell in the Kielder Forest is situated on the border between the Scottish Borders to the North and the English county of Northumberland to the South.