Blencathra

Blencathra, also known as Saddleback, is one of the most northerly hills in the English Lake District. It has six separate fell tops, of which the highest is the Hallsfell Top at . For many years, Ordnance Survey listed Blencathra under the alternative name of Saddleback, which was coined in reference to the shape of the mountain when seen from the east. The guidebook author Alfred Wainwright popularised the use of the older Cumbric name, which is now used almost exclusively. Ordnance Survey currently marks the summit as ‘Saddleback or Blencathra’. It is likely that the name Blencathra is derived from the Cumbric elements *blain ‘top, summit’ and cadeir ‘seat, chair’, meaning ‘the summit of the seat-like mountain’. Andrew Breeze has proposed an alternative interpretation of the second element of the name, arguing that it represents a Cumbric cognate of Middle Welsh carthwr ‘working horse’. Richard Coates has suggested that the second element may be the Middle Irish personal name Carthach, but writes that ‘the implications of that with a Brittonic generic need exploring’. The Northern Fells make up a roughly circular upland area about wide. At the centre is the marshy depression of Skiddaw Forest — a treeless plateau at an altitude of — and flowing outward from here are the rivers which divide the area into three sectors. The southeastern sector, between the Glenderaterra Beck and the River Caldew, contains Blencathra and its satellites. Blencathra is more of a small range than a single fell, a series of tops standing out on a curving ridge long. It has smooth, easy slopes to the north and west, whilst displaying a complex system of rocky spurs and scree slopes to the south and east. When viewed from the southeast, particularly on the main Keswick to Penrith road, Blencathra appears almost symmetrical. To left and right, the ends of the fell rise from the surrounding lowlands in smooth and sweeping curves, clad in rough grass. Each rises gracefully to a ridge-top summit, Blease Fell on the west and Scales Fell to the east.