High Crag - Geology and Mining

Geology and Mining

The summit rocks are of the Birker Fell Formation, plagioclase-phyric andesite lavas. Interbeds of volcaniclastic sandstone and lapilli-tuff also appear. Seat is an outcrop of the flow banded andesite lavas of the Haystacks Member, shot through with quartz-feldspar phyric microgranite.

There was small scale mining activity in the late nineteenth century beneath Low Wax Knott, adjacent to the Scarth Gap path. Two men worked the operation, living on the fellside in a hut. A search was organised after their regular visits to the local hostelry abruptly ceased, and one was found dead in a pool at Warnscale. It was suspected that the other had killed him.