Topography
Not a fell of great significance, Heron Pike is a slight grassy rise on the long southern ridge of its parent fell Fairfield. Just cresting the 2,000 foot mark at 612 m (2,008 ft), it is mostly climbed as part of the Fairfield horseshoe walk and it lies between the adjoining fells of Nab Scar and Great Rigg. Heron Pike’s eastern side features Erne Crag and Blind Cove as it falls away quite steeply towards Rydal Beck. At the base of Erne Crag is an old quarry, the mouth of a cavern quite easy to locate.
The fell's western flank drops towards Grasmere and has the small Alcock Tarn on its lower slopes at a height of 360 m (1,180 ft). Alcock Tarn was originally known as Butter Crags Tarn and was enlarged by means of a stone and earth dam in the nineteenth century to a depth of about six feet. The owner, a Mr Alcock of Grasmere, then stocked it with brown trout.
Heron Pike has a "subsidiary" top which qualifies as a Nuttall. It is called Heron Pike North Top on the Nuttall lists, but is also known as Rydal Fell in some guide books. It lies 400 metres north of the main summit at the top of Erne Crag and has a height of 621 m (2,039 ft). The deliberate choice by Alfred Wainwright of the lower top to be the summit in his Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells is one of the many oddities which differentiate Wainwrights from more logical hill lists such as Nuttalls or Hewitts.
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