Fellbarrow

Fellbarrow is a low grassy hill in the north-west of the Lake District, near Cockermouth and Loweswater. It stands at the northern end of a two-mile ridge that includes Low Fell, with Smithy Fell and Sourfoot Fell as its satellites. The fell is part of the Western Fells, a horseshoe of high country around Ennerdale, but it lies remote from the main mass. Its western slopes drop to rolling farmland on the edge of the national park, while the eastern side falls into the Vale of Lorton. The River Cocker flows through this wide cultivated valley, passing the hamlet of Thackthwaite. The summit is a gently curving dome of grass, crossed by a fence and topped by an Ordnance Survey column and a cairn. From here the view stretches across the Cumberland plain to the Irish Sea and Solway Firth on clear days. To the east the eye is drawn to the Whiteside–Grisedale Pike ridge and beyond to Skiddaw and Blencathra. Further round the panorama includes the full length of Ennerdale’s northern wall, with Pillar and the Scafells behind. Alfred Wainwright, in his Pictorial Guide, treated Fellbarrow as the ridge’s high point despite some uncertainty. The fell can be climbed from Low Lorton via a farm track that leads to Broadmoor Hill and the north-east ridge. Another route follows the drove road from Thackthwaite up Low Fell and then branches north to Fellbarrow. The western flanks have no public paths but are marked as open access land. From the summit the rounded dome and surrounding fells present a quiet, pastoral scene without lakes or tarns in sight.