The Lake District glossary

-by /bee/

A farmstead or village.

A Norse/Danish element for a settlement.

Old Norse/Danish 'bý', a farm/village.

Kirkby, Sowerby, the '-by' villages of the Eden Valley.

“The '-by' names trace Norse settlement.”

bý (ON/Da)

-ton, thwaite

-ton /tun/

A farmstead, estate or village.

The Old English element for an enclosed farm, later a village; the English counterpart of Norse '-by'.

Old English 'tūn', an enclosure, then a farmstead or village.

Coniston ('the king's farm', with a Norse word for king), Lorton, Bampton.

“Coniston is a king's '-ton' with a Viking accent.”

tūn (OE)

-by, Kirk, Thwaite

Aiming off

Deliberately aiming to one side of a target.

Aim off to one side of a feature on a line, so when you hit it you know which way to turn.

Orienteering term.

Used to find a bridge or gate on a wall.

“Aim off left, then turn right along the wall to the gate.”

Catching feature, Handrail

Alp

A high mountain pasture (European usage).

Strictly a summer grazing high on a mountain, not a peak.

German.

Echoes the Lakeland shieling system ('scale','seat').

“Summer cattle on the high alp.”

high pasture

Scale, Seat

Approach

The walk-in from road or car park to the foot of a route or climb.

The often-unsung first leg from the trailhead to where the real interest begins.

Lakeland approaches can be long: Pillar or Great Gable from Wasdale need a serious walk-in.

“It's a 40-minute approach to the foot of the crag.”

walk-in

Approach shoes, Trailhead

Approach shoes

Low-cut shoes for easier ground before technical routes.

A cross between trainer and boot — sticky soles, light, good for dry rocky paths.

Popular for low-level and dry summer fell days.

“Approach shoes for the dry rocky path.”

Boots, Scramble

Arête /a-RET/

A sharp mountain ridge.

A knife-edged ridge between two glacial hollows.

French 'arête', a fish-bone/ridge.

Striding Edge and Sharp Edge are the Lakes' classic arêtes.

“The arête narrows to a single boot-width.”

Edge

Edge, Cove, Cirque

Drawn in the diagram: Corrie, arête and tarn

Ascent

The total height gained over a route.

The cumulative vertical climb in metres — a truer measure of effort than distance.

Quoted on every hikes.guide route beside distance and time.

“12 km with 900 m of ascent.”

High Stile

height gain, climb

Descent, Gradient, Naismith's rule

Aspect

The compass direction a slope faces.

A slope facing north has a northerly aspect. It affects how much sun the ground gets, how long snow and ice last and how a given wind hits it; it is one clue among several, not a forecast.

Latin 'aspectus', a view or outlook.

In a Lakeland winter, snow and ice tend to linger longest in north- and east-facing corries and gullies after sunnier slopes have cleared.

“South side's clear, but the north-facing gullies still hold old snow.”

slope aspect

Corrie / Cirque / Cwm, Freeze-thaw, Cornice, Gradient, Navigation skills

Attack point

An obvious feature to navigate from to a hidden target.

A clear landmark near your objective from which you make a final, precise bearing.

Navigation term.

Used to find a small tarn or sheepfold in poor visibility.

“Navigate to the cairn, then attack the tarn from there.”

Aiming off, Pacing

Back bearing

A bearing's opposite direction, 180° round.

The exact opposite of a bearing: add 180°, or take it away if the bearing is over 180°, so 070° becomes 250°. Used to check for drift by sighting back to where you came from.

Navigation term.

Useful on the broad Lakeland plateaux, where a cairn or wall behind you can confirm you are still on line in poor visibility.

“The cairn should be dead behind us, on the back bearing of 250°.”

reciprocal bearing

Bearing, The three norths, Plateau, Handrail

Bagging /BAG-ing/

Collecting summits from a list.

Ticking off named hills — Wainwrights, Birketts, Munros and the rest.

Hill-walking slang.

'Doing the Wainwrights' is the Lakes' great bagging quest.

“She's bagging the last of her 214.”

peak-bagging

Wainwright, tick list

Bail-out

The decision to abandon the planned route.

Calling it — cutting the day short and taking an escape route when weather, time or fatigue demand.

Good judgement, not failure; the fells will still be there.

“We made the call to bail out off the ridge.”

retreat

Escape route, Turn-back time

Band /band/

A broad, sloping ridge or shoulder.

A wide ridge used as an ascent line, gentler than an edge.

English dialect — a 'band' of high ground.

The Band, the classic shoulder up to Bowfell from Langdale.

“Go up Bowfell by The Band.”

Rigg, Spur, Shoulder

Base layer

A moisture-wicking layer next to the skin.

The first layer, pulling sweat away to keep you dry and warm — never cotton on the hill.

The bottom of the Lakeland layering system.

“A wicking base layer keeps you dry.”

baselayer

Layering, Mid-layer

Bearing /BAIR-ing/

A direction measured in degrees from north.

The angle (000–360°) you set on a compass to walk a straight line to your target.

Navigation term.

Essential when cloud drops on a featureless plateau like Skiddaw or Kinder.

“Take a bearing to the col before the cloud comes in.”

heading

Back bearing, Variation

Beck /bek/

A stream.

The standard Lakeland word for a stream.

Old Norse 'bekkr', a stream.

Stock Ghyll Beck, Mosedale Beck, the becks that feed every tarn.

“Cross the beck at the footbridge.”

Troutbeck Tongue

bekkr (ON), stream, brook

Gill, Sike, Force

Birk /birk/

Birch tree.

The Norse word for birch, scattered across the map.

Old Norse 'björk', birch.

Birks (a fell above Patterdale), Birk Fell, Birker Fell ('birch hill').

“Birks is the little fell on the way to St Sunday Crag.”

1 Wainwright named “Birk” Birks

björk (ON)

Blea, Swarth

Birkett /BIRK-et/

One of 541 Lakeland tops over 1,000 ft.

Every top above 1,000 ft (304.8 m) inside the National Park, listed by Bill Birkett — by height and location, not prominence, so the list is huge.

Bill Birkett, 'Complete Lakeland Fells' (1994).

The most complete 'every top' Lakeland list.

“The Birketts add 327 tops the Wainwrights miss.”

Birketts

Wainwright, Nuttall

Black Combe /black KOOM/

The lone fell in the Park's south-west corner.

A broad hill of old Skiddaw slate rising a few miles from the Irish Sea, well away from any higher ground.

English 'black' + 'combe', a hollow: named from a dark corrie on the fell.

One of Wainwright's Outlying Fells, at 600 m; standing alone, it gives a wide view of sea and hills that Wordsworth praised.

“From Black Combe, half the view is sea.”

Black Comb

Swarth, Comb / Coombe, Wainwright Outlying Fells, Corrie / Cirque / Cwm

Blazing

Marking a trail with paint or symbols (chiefly US).

Painted blazes on trees or rocks marking a route — common in America, rare in the Lakes.

UK fells use cairns and waymark posts, not paint.

“Follow the white blazes" (US trails).”

trail marking

Waymarked trail, Cairn line

Blea /blee/

Blue or dark.

A descriptive element meaning blue/dark, usually of water or rock.

Old Norse 'blár', blue/dark.

Blea Tarn (Langdale), Blea Water (the deepest tarn), Bleaberry.

“Blea Tarn mirrors the Langdale Pikes.”

1 Wainwright named “Blea” Blea Rigg

blár (ON)

Swarth, Birk

Blencathra /blen-KATH-ra/

'Bare hill shaped like a chair'.

One of the few major fells with a Cumbric (Celtic) name; its English nickname is Saddleback.

Cumbric 'blain' (top) + 'cadeir' (chair); or 'Devil's Peak'.

The grand north-eastern fell above Threlkeld, climbed by Sharp Edge.

“Blencathra or Saddleback — same mountain, two languages.”

1 Wainwright named “Blencathra” Blencathra

Saddleback

Sharp Edge, Cumbric

Bob Graham Round

A 42-peak, 66-mile, 24-hour fell round.

The classic Lakeland endurance challenge: 42 summits, ~66 miles and ~27,000 ft of ascent within 24 hours, from and back to Keswick's Moot Hall.

First done by Bob Graham, 1932.

The blue riband of Lakeland fell running.

“She completed the Bob Graham in 23 hours.”

BG, the Bob, Bob Graham

Fell running, Joss Naylor

Bog

Very wet, waterlogged ground.

Saturated peaty ground that can swallow a boot — a defining Lakeland hazard.

High cols and mosses are notorious bogs.

“The col is a bog after rain.”

mire

Bog-trot, Peat hag, Moss

Bog-trot

To cross boggy ground; a boggy walk.

Picking a wet, squelchy way over peat and moss.

English/Scots dialect.

Many high cols in the Lakes are a bog-trot.

“It's a proper bog-trot to the col.”

Moss, Mire, Peat hag

Boot rating (B0–B3)

Boot stiffness for crampon use.

A scale from flexible (B0) to fully rigid (B3) showing how stiff a boot is — and which crampons it can take.

Mountaineering kit standard.

Matters for winter Lakeland routes like Helvellyn in snow.

“B2 boots take C2 crampons.”

Crampon rating, Ice axe

Boots

Sturdy footwear with ankle support for rough ground.

The walker's foundation — supportive, gripped and ideally waterproof for Lakeland terrain.

Stiffer boots (B1–B3) are needed for winter crampon use.

“Broken-in boots are worth their weight.”

walking boots

Boot rating (B0–B3), Approach shoes, Gaiters

Borrowdale

The valley running south from Derwentwater to Honister.

A long dale of oakwood, crag and small farms, with Grange, Rosthwaite, Stonethwaite and Seatoller along it and the high central fells round its head.

Old Norse 'borg' (fort) + 'dalr' (valley): the valley of the fort, the fort usually taken to be Castle Crag.

The base for Glaramara, Castle Crag, Great Gable and the northern approaches to Scafell Pike; a second Borrowdale, near Tebay, joined the National Park in 2016, so check which one a map or list means.

“We stayed in Borrowdale and walked from the door.”

Borger Dalr (ON)

Dale, Glaramara, Thwaite, Great Gable, Scafell Pike

Bothy /BOTH-ee/

A basic, unlocked mountain shelter.

A simple stone refuge, free to use, maintained for walkers.

Gaelic 'bothan'.

Fewer in the Lakes than Scotland, but Mosedale Cottage and others exist.

“We sheltered in the bothy overnight.”

Both

Shelter, Wild camping

Boulder field

An area strewn with large rocks.

Ground of big, often unstable blocks where every step must be placed.

The summit of Scafell Pike is a vast boulder field.

“Pick your way across the boulder field.”

block field

Scree, Talus

Bowder Stone

A house-sized boulder poised on its edge in Borrowdale.

A huge block of volcanic rock resting on a narrow base below Bowder Crag, near Grange, with a ladder to its top. Geologists read it as a rockfall from the crag above after the ice had gone, not as a glacier-carried erratic.

Etymology uncertain.

A short, easy walk from the National Trust car park in the Jaws of Borrowdale.

“Climb the ladder and you are standing on the Bowder Stone.”

Erratic, Crag, Easy walk, Boulder field

Broad Stand

The rock steps between Mickledore and Scafell: not a walkers' route.

A short series of rock steps and slabs linking the Mickledore col to Scafell. It looks like the obvious short cut between Scafell Pike and Scafell, but it needs moves of rock-climbing difficulty above big drops.

Etymology uncertain.

Wasdale Mountain Rescue advises walkers not to use it: there is no easy direct route between the two summits, and the walkers' way round is by the Foxes Tarn gully on the Eskdale side.

“No short cut from Mickledore: we went round by Foxes Tarn.”

Mickledore, Scafell Pike, Escape route, Scramble, Exposure

Brock /brok/

Badger.

An element for badger ground.

Old English 'brocc', a badger.

Brockhole (Windermere visitor centre, 'badger hollow'), Brock Crag.

“Brockhole means the badgers' den.”

1 Wainwright named “Brock” Brock Crags

brocc (OE)

Grise, Harter

Brocken spectre /BROK-en/

Your shadow cast huge on cloud, ringed by light.

A giant shadow of yourself thrown onto cloud below, often haloed by a coloured 'glory'.

Named after the Brocken in Germany's Harz.

Seen when you stand between the sun and a bank of cloud or mist.

“A Brocken spectre loomed on the fog below the summit.”

glory

Glory, Inversion

Buttress /BUT-ress/

A steep mass of rock jutting out from a crag or mountainside.

A section of rock that stands proud of the face around it, often with a gully on either side. It is mostly climbers' vocabulary; walkers' paths usually go round a buttress rather than over it.

Old French 'bouterez', from 'bouter', to push; first an architect's word for a wall support.

Scafell's East Buttress and the lettered buttresses of Dow Crag above Goat's Water are climbing ground, not walking routes.

“The path swings left under the buttress instead of taking it on.”

Crag, Cliff, Outcrop, Scramble

Drawn in the diagram: Crag, buttress, rake, slab and scree

Byway open to all traffic

A right of way open to every user, motor vehicles included.

A highway open to walkers, riders, cyclists, carriage drivers and motor vehicles, though used mainly as a footpath or bridleway would be. The status says nothing about the surface, which is often too rough for an ordinary car.

Legal category.

The National Park Authority accepts the legal right to drive BOATs and unsealed roads, but uses Traffic Regulation Orders to limit motor traffic on some, such as the permit system on Gatescarth Pass.

“It's a BOAT, so you might meet a 4x4, or a horse.”

BOAT, byway, green lane

Right of way, Track, Pass

Cairn /kairn/

A pile of stones marking a path or top.

A built stone heap for navigation or to mark a summit; not to be confused with natural 'raises'.

Gaelic 'càrn'.

Summit cairns crown most Wainwrights; cairned routes cross featureless plateaux.

“Follow the cairns across the plateau.”

High Raise (High Street), High Raise (Langdale), Raise, Rosthwaite Fell

Currick, Man, Raise

Cairn line

A route marked by a series of cairns.

A string of stone-piles guiding walkers across featureless or pathless ground.

Cairned lines cross stony plateaux like Scafell Pike's.

“Follow the cairn line across the boulders.”

cairned route

Cairn, Currick

Cam / Kam /kam/

A crest or comb-like ridge.

A toothed or combed crest.

Old Norse 'kambr', a comb/crest.

Catstye Cam, the shapely peak beside Helvellyn.

“Catstye Cam is the elegant cone above Red Tarn.”

kambr (ON)

Rigg, Edge

Canyon

A large, steep-sided valley (chiefly non-UK).

The American term for a deep gorge; rare for British landforms.

Spanish.

Not a native Lakeland word — ours is gorge or gill.

“More gorge than canyon by UK standards.”

gorge

Gorge

Cat Bells /KAT-belz/

Possibly 'den of the wild cat'.

A small, hugely popular fell on Derwentwater's western shore.

Old English 'catt' + Middle English 'belde' (den).

The classic family first-fell above Keswick.

“Cat Bells is everyone's first Lakeland summit.”

Cat Bells

Catching feature

A backstop telling you you've gone too far.

An obvious feature beyond your target so you know to turn back if you reach it.

Navigation term.

A beck or wall across your line is a classic catcher.

“If you hit the beck, you've overshot — that's your catching feature.”

backstop

Handrail, Aiming off

Checkpoint

A point where you check progress or timing.

A planned spot to confirm position, time and group state, and make a go/no-go call.

Used to manage turn-back decisions on big rounds.

“At the checkpoint we were behind our turn-back time.”

control point

Turn-back time, Risk assessment

Chimney

A narrow cleft in rock, just wide enough to climb up inside.

A steep crack between two rock walls, climbed by bracing against both sides rather than by holds on an open face. Walkers meet short ones on scrambles; long ones are climbing ground.

English, by likeness to a house chimney.

On Striding Edge our route down-climbs a short rocky chute known as the Chimney, and the north end of Yewbarrow drops in ledges and chimneys.

“The chimney's only a few metres, but you'll want both hands.”

Gully, Rock step, Scramble, Crag, Striding Edge

Clag / Hill fog /klag/

Low cloud or mist sitting on the hills.

'Clag' is the walker's word for cloud down on the tops, cutting visibility to metres — a Lakeland near-constant.

Dialect/slang.

One of the most-used words in a Lakeland forecast.

“The tops were in thick clag all day.”

clag, hill fog, fog, mist

White-out, MWIS, Visibility

Cliff

A very steep or vertical rock face.

A sheer wall of rock — bigger and more vertical than a crag.

Lakeland cliffs like Scafell's East Buttress are serious climbing ground.

“The path skirts the top of the cliff.”

Nab Scar, Scar Crags

precipice

Crag, Scar

Cloud base

The height of the underside of the cloud.

The lowest level at which cloud is present: below it you can see, above it you are in the cloud. Mountain forecasts give it in metres, so it can be set against the height of the tops.

Meteorology.

A cloud base of 700 m puts Helvellyn and the Scafells in cloud while the lower fells, such as Cat Bells, may stay clear.

“Cloud base 700 m: Helvellyn will be in it, Cat Bells won't.”

cloud height

Clag / Hill fog, Visibility, MWIS, Temperature inversion, Orographic rainfall

Coast to Coast

Wainwright's 190-mile cross-England walk.

A long-distance route from St Bees on the Irish Sea to Robin Hood's Bay on the North Sea, crossing the Lakes, Dales and North York Moors.

Devised by A. Wainwright, 1973.

Starts by climbing straight into the western fells.

“Day one of the Coast to Coast climbs out of St Bees.”

C2C, the Coast to Coast

Wainwright, long-distance path

Col /kol/

The low point between two summits.

A saddle or dip on a ridge connecting two tops.

French 'col', a neck.

Every ridge round has its cols; the Lakeland word is 'hause'.

“Drop to the col, then climb the next top.”

Swirl How, Ullscarf

Hause, Saddle, Bealach

Hause, Pass, Gap

Comb / Coombe /koom/

A short valley or hollow.

A small enclosed valley or combe.

Old English 'cumb', a valley; related to Welsh 'cwm'.

Combe Gill in Borrowdale; the many 'combs' on the map.

“The path climbs the comb behind the farm.”

cwm (Celtic)

Cove, Cirque

Commitment / Committing

How hard it is to turn back once you have started a section.

A committing section is one where retreat is slow or difficult, so the decision to go on has to be made before it starts. A non-committing route has easy ways off throughout. It describes the ways out, not how hard the ground is.

English, from Latin 'committere', to entrust.

Our route pages use it for Sharp Edge, where the decision is made at Scales Tarn rather than halfway across, and for long walk-outs down remote valleys far from a road.

“Once you drop into that valley you're committed; it's a long walk out.”

non-committing

Escape route, Bail-out, Turn-back time, Exposure, Sharp Edge

Compass

A magnetic needle in a dial on a clear baseplate.

The walker's kind is a baseplate compass: a liquid-filled housing with a needle and a dial in degrees, on a clear plate with a direction-of-travel arrow. It needs no battery.

Old French 'compas'.

Mountain Rescue England and Wales encourages walkers to carry a paper map and compass and know how to use them, not to rely on a phone.

“Phone's flat, but the compass doesn't need charging.”

baseplate compass, protractor compass

Bearing, Magnetic north, The three norths, Navigation skills, Map case, The ten essentials

Compleat /kom-PLEET/

To finish every hill on a list.

The baggers' old spelling of 'complete', borrowed from the Scottish Mountaineering Club's habit of recording Munro rounds as 'compleated'.

Archaic spelling of 'complete', kept alive by Munro-baggers.

Used loosely for finishing the 214; the Wainwright Society itself says 'completers' and keeps registers of members who have done the 214 and the Outlying Fells.

“He compleated his Wainwrights on Great Gable.”

compleation, compleatist

Tick list, The 214, Bagging, Munro, Wainwright

Contour /KON-tour/

A line joining points of equal height.

Map lines showing the shape and steepness of the land; closely spaced = steep.

Cartography.

On OS 1:25,000 maps the contour interval is 10 m.

“Tightly-packed contours mean a steep pull.”

contour line

Re-entrant, Contour interval

Drawn in the diagram: Ridge, spur, re-entrant and valley

Contour interval

The height gap between neighbouring contour lines.

Each contour sits a fixed vertical distance above the one below, and the map key gives the figure. Knowing it lets you count lines to work out the height you will gain.

Cartography.

OS Explorer maps use 5 m in lowland areas and 10 m in mountain areas such as the Lakeland fells; the key on each sheet confirms which.

“Ten contours at 10 m: that's 100 m of climb to the col.”

vertical interval

Contour, OS Explorer, OS Landranger, Gradient, Spot height

Corbett /KOR-bet/

A Scottish hill of 2,500–3,000 ft.

A Scottish summit between 2,500 and 3,000 ft (762–914.4 m) with at least 500 ft (152.4 m) of drop on every side.

J. Rooke Corbett's list, published after his death in Munro's Tables (1953).

Scottish only, like the Munros; Lakeland fells of that height sit in the Hewitt and Nuttall lists instead.

“With the Munros done, she started on the Corbetts.”

Corbetts

Munro, Marilyn, Hewitt, Nuttall

Cornice /KOR-nis/

An overhanging lip of wind-blown snow.

A curling shelf of snow built out over the lee edge of a ridge — liable to collapse under a walker's weight.

Mountaineering.

Forms on east edges like Helvellyn's in winter.

“Stay well back from the cornice on the edge.”

White-out, Edge

Corridor Route

The classic high-level path to Scafell Pike.

A celebrated mountain path to England's highest summit from Borrowdale (via Styhead) or Wasdale, threading a natural 'corridor' below the crags.

One of the great Lakeland routes — and a hikes.guide route page.

“The Corridor Route is the connoisseur's way up Scafell Pike.”

the Corridor

Scafell Pike, Sty

Corrie / Cirque / Cwm /KOR-ee/

An armchair hollow scooped by a glacier.

A steep-walled mountain basin, often holding a tarn — the Lakeland word is 'cove'.

Gaelic 'coire' / Welsh 'cwm' / French 'cirque'.

Red Tarn's cove on Helvellyn is a textbook corrie.

“A perfect tarn-filled corrie.”

Cove, Combe, corry

Cove, Tarn, Arête

Cove /kohv/

A mountain hollow or cirque.

A steep-walled hollow high on a mountain — the Lakeland word for a corrie.

Old English 'cofa', a hollow/chamber.

Helvellyn's coves cradling Red Tarn; Blea Water's cove on High Street.

“Red Tarn fills Helvellyn's eastern cove.”

1 Wainwright named “Cove” Stony Cove Pike

cofa (OE)

Corrie, Cirque, Tarn

Drawn in the diagram: Corrie, arête and tarn

Crag /krag/

A steep rock face or outcrop.

A cliff or band of bare rock — a magnet for climbers and ravens.

Celtic/Brythonic 'creag/carreg', rock — older than the Norse layer.

Walla Crag, Raven Crag, Castle Crag, Eagle Crag.

“Walla Crag drops straight to Derwentwater.”

30 Wainwrights named “Crag” Allen Crags, Ard Crags, Arnison Crag, Bannerdale Crags, Brock Crags, Calf Crag, Castle Crag, Crag Fell, Crinkle Crags, Dove Crag, Dow Crag, Eagle Crag, Eel Crag (Crag Hill), Gray Crag, Great Crag, Green Crag, Grey Crag (Sleddale), Hart Crag, Helm Crag, High Crag (Buttermere), Little Hart Crag, Loft Crag, Raven Crag, Scar Crags, Sergeant's Crag, St Sunday Crag, Tarn Crag (Easedale), Tarn Crag (Sleddale), Thornthwaite Crag, Walla Crag

Great Sca Fell, Scafell, Scoat Fell, Stybarrow Dodd

creag (Celtic)

Scar, Buttress, Nab

Crampon rating (C1–C3)

Crampon flex matched to boots.

Crampons rated C1 (flexible/walking) to C3 (rigid/technical), paired to a boot's B-rating.

Mountaineering kit standard.

Needed for hard snow and ice on the winter tops.

“Don't put C3 crampons on flexible boots.”

Boot rating, Microspikes

Crampons /KRAM-ponz/

Metal spikes fitted to boots for snow and ice.

Frames of metal points fitted under a boot for grip on hard snow and ice. They must suit the boot, and walking in them safely needs training and practice.

French 'crampon', a hook or clamp.

The National Park's Fell Top Assessors advise carrying an ice axe and crampons in winter conditions and knowing how to use them; their winter skills days ask for crampons rated at least C1, not spikes.

“Microspikes won't do on that snow; it's crampons and the axe.”

crampon

Crampon rating (C1–C3), Microspikes, Ice axe, Boot rating (B0–B3), Freezing level

Cross Fell

The Pennines' highest top, outside the National Park.

A broad, stony plateau on the North Pennine escarpment east of the Eden Valley. It is not in the Lake District: it lies in the North Pennines National Landscape.

Earlier recorded as 'Fiends Fell'; the change to 'Cross' is tied to a legend, and the real reason is uncertain.

Seen across the Eden from the eastern fells; the Helm Wind blows down its western scarp, and the Pennine Way crosses the top.

“The Helm Bar was sitting over Cross Fell again.”

Fiends Fell

Helm Wind, Fell, Hewitt, Marilyn, Plateau

Cross-country

Travel off established paths.

Moving over open, pathless ground — possible thanks to open-access land.

The right to roam lets you go cross-country over the open fell.

“We cut cross-country to the ridge.”

off-path

Open access land, Trod

Cumbric /KUM-brik/

The Celtic language once spoken in Cumbria.

A Brittonic language close to Old Welsh, spoken in north-west England and southern Scotland in the early Middle Ages and gone by about the 12th century; it survives almost only in place-names.

From a Brittonic word for 'fellow countrymen', the same word as Welsh 'Cymry'; Latinised as 'Cumbria'.

It lies behind some of the oldest fell names, Blencathra and probably Helvellyn among them, which are older than the Norse names around them.

“Blencathra's name is Cumbric, not Norse.”

Helvellyn, Seatallan

Blencathra, Helvellyn, Man, Comb / Coombe

Cut-off

A shorter alternative that truncates the route.

A way to shorten a walk by skipping part of it — useful as a bad-weather option.

Handy when cloud or fatigue means cutting a round short.

“There's a cut-off down the valley if the weather turns.”

short option

Escape route, Bail-out

Dale /dayl/

A valley.

The everyday word for a Lakeland valley.

Old Norse 'dalr', a valley.

Borrowdale, Langdale, Eskdale, Mardale, Patterdale.

“Borrowdale is the loveliest dale of all.”

1 Wainwright named “Dale” Dale Head

Seat Sandal

dalr (ON)

Cove, Hause, Vale

Day hike

A single-day walk returning to base.

A walk done in daylight with no overnight kit — the norm in the compact Lakes.

Most Lakeland routes are day hikes from a valley base.

“A full day hike over the Fairfield Horseshoe.”

day walk

Daypack, Backpacking

Daypack

A small backpack for day walks.

A light ~20–30 litre sack holding layers, food, water and safety kit.

The standard bag for a Lakeland day.

“A 25-litre daypack holds the ten essentials.”

day sack

Pack / Backpack / Rucksack, The ten essentials

Dead-end spur

A side path that must be retraced.

A spur that doesn't rejoin the route — you come back the way you went.

Worth knowing before you commit, to avoid a backtrack.

“The path to the tarn is a dead-end spur.”

Spur path, Out-and-back

Dell /del/

A small, wooded valley.

A little tree-filled hollow — essentially a miniature, leafy dale.

Old English 'dell'.

Adds to the family of Lakeland valley words: dale, gill, combe, dell.

“A shady dell beside the beck.”

Dale, Comb / Coombe

Descent

The total height lost over a route.

The cumulative downhill — hard on the knees and often the riskier half of a day.

Steep descents off Scafell Pike cause many slips.

“The descent is steep and loose.”

drop

Ascent, Scree, Trekking poles

Dewey /DEW-ee/

A 500–610 m hill with 30 m of drop.

A hill in England, Wales or the Isle of Man between 500 m and 2,000 ft (609.6 m), rising at least 30 m on every side.

Michael Dewey, 'Mountain Tables' (1995).

It covers the band just below the Hewitts and Nuttalls, so it takes in the mid-height fells those lists leave out.

“Too low for a Hewitt, but it's a Dewey.”

Deweys

Hewitt, Nuttall, Marilyn, Birkett

Dodd /dod/

A rounded, often lower or wooded hill.

A 'dodd' is a smoothly rounded top, frequently a subsidiary or forested hill rather than a craggy peak.

Dialect/Old English for a rounded summit.

Dodd (Dodd Wood, Bassenthwaite), Great Dodd, Watson's Dodd on the Helvellyn range.

“Dodd is a gentle, forested little summit above Bassenthwaite.”

10 Wainwrights named “Dodd” Dodd (Skiddaw), Glenridding Dodd, Great Dodd, Hartsop Dodd, High Hartsop Dodd, Middle Dodd, Rest Dodd, Starling Dodd, Stybarrow Dodd, Watson's Dodd

Dod

Knott, How, Mell

Down jacket

A light, very warm jacket filled with down.

The warmest insulation for its weight — but loses loft when wet, so kept dry under a shell.

Great for cold, dry winter days; less so in the rain.

“A down jacket packs tiny and warms fast.”

down

Insulated jacket, Hardshell / softshell

Drystone wall

A mortar-free stone field wall.

Walls built by interlocking stone without cement — the signature boundary of the dales.

Traditional craft.

Thousands of miles of them climb the fells; a protected craft.

“The wall climbs dead-straight up the fellside.”

dyke, dry stone wall

Intake, Sheepfold

Dub /dub/

A small pool in a stream.

A deep pool or small pond, often a wild-swimming spot.

Old Norse, a pool.

Lambfoot Dub on Scafell; countless becks have their 'dubs'.

“There's a perfect swimming dub below the falls.”

Beck, Tarn

Eastings / Northings

The two numbers in a grid reference.

Eastings are the vertical grid lines, numbered upwards as you go east; northings are the horizontal ones, numbered as you go north. A grid reference gives the two-letter square first, then the easting, then the northing.

Ordnance Survey National Grid.

Most of the Lake District lies in the OS grid squares NY and SD, so a Lakeland grid reference usually starts with one of those.

“Eastings first: along the corridor, then up the stairs.”

eastings, northings

Grid reference, Grid square, Ordnance Survey (OS) map

Easy walk

A short, low-level route on good paths.

A gentle outing suitable for most abilities — the kind on the hikes.guide easy-walks page.

Lakeland easy walks: lake circuits, waterfalls, low viewpoints.

“An easy walk round the tarn for all the family.”

Low-level walk, Lakeshore path

Edge /ej/

A narrow, sharp ridge.

A knife-edged arête, often the most thrilling way up a peak.

Old English 'ecg', an edge or blade.

Striding Edge and Swirral Edge on Helvellyn; Sharp Edge on Blencathra.

“Striding Edge is the Lakes' most famous ridge.”

Brim Fell

ecg (OE)

Arête, Rigg, scramble

Elevation

Height above sea level, in metres on UK maps.

How high a point stands above the sea — the basic measure of a summit.

Scafell Pike's elevation is 978 m, England's highest.

“Summit elevation 950 m.”

altitude, height

Spot height, Contour line

Emergency blanket

A light reflective sheet to retain body heat.

A foil blanket reflecting warmth back to a casualty — backup to a survival bag.

Cheap, tiny, worth carrying.

“A foil blanket lives in the first-aid kit.”

foil blanket

Survival bag / Bivi bag, First-aid kit

Emergency contact

Someone told your route and return time.

A person who knows where you've gone and when to raise the alarm.

The simplest safety net — leave your route with someone.

“Always leave your route and timings with someone.”

Turn-back time, Risk assessment

Erg /erg/

A hill pasture or shieling.

A summer grazing — a Norse word borrowed from Gaelic.

Old Norse 'erg', from Gaelic 'áirge'.

Sizergh ('Sigarith's pasture'); Mosser, Winder.

“Sizergh hides a Gaelic loan-word for a pasture.”

erg (ON, from Gaelic)

Scale, Seat

Erosion

Paths and slopes worn away by feet and weather.

Boots strip the plants from a line, rain runs down the bare strip and cuts it into a gully, and walkers step round the mess so the scar widens. Stone pitching, drains and re-seeding are the usual repairs.

Latin 'erodere', to gnaw away.

Fix the Fells, a partnership that includes the National Trust and the National Park Authority, repairs and maintains the Lakes' upland paths against it.

“Stay on the pitched line; stepping off it is how the gully started.”

path erosion, gullying

Pitched path, Trod, Shortcut, Switchback / Zigzag, LNT / Leave No Trace, Peat hag

Erratic /e-RAT-ik/

A boulder dropped by a glacier.

A rock carried far from its origin and stranded by melting ice.

Latin 'erraticus', wandering.

Erratics sit on fellsides and valley floors across the Lakes. The Bowder Stone in Borrowdale, often called one, is a rockfall from the crag above.

“That boulder isn't the same rock as the crag behind it: it's an erratic.”

Moraine, Bowder Stone

Escape route

A shorter, safer way off if conditions worsen.

A pre-identified bail-out line down to safety, away from exposed ground.

Knowing the valley escapes off a ridge is basic Lakeland planning.

“The col gives an escape route into the next valley.”

bail-out line

Bail-out, Cut-off

Exposure

The sense of steep drops beside the route.

'Airy' ground where a slip would have serious consequences — nerve as much as skill.

Sharp Edge and Striding Edge are the Lakes' most exposed walkers' routes.

“The arête is narrow and the exposure is real.”

airiness, drop

Edge, Arête, Scramble

False summit

A rise that looks like the top but isn't.

A foresummit that hides the true top until you're over it.

English.

Many Lakeland ascents have a cruel false top.

“Another false summit — the real one's beyond.”

fore-summit, foresummit

Summit

Fell /fel/

A mountain or hill of open upland.

In the Lakes, a 'fell' is any of the high, largely unenclosed hills used for rough grazing — the word covers everything from a grassy whaleback to a rocky peak.

Old Norse 'fjall', a mountain (usually large and flat-topped).

The defining Lakeland word; the hills are 'the fells' and walkers are 'fell-walkers'.

“We did three fells on the Newlands round.”

39 Wainwrights named “Fell” Armboth Fell, Beda Fell, Black Fell, Blake Fell, Bleaberry Fell, Bowscale Fell, Brae Fell, Brim Fell, Broom Fell, Burnbank Fell, Carrock Fell, Caw Fell, Crag Fell, Gavel Fell, Gowbarrow Fell, Grange Fell, Great Mell Fell, Great Sca Fell, Hallin Fell, Harter Fell (Eskdale), Harter Fell (Mardale), Holme Fell, Kirk Fell, Ling Fell, Lingmoor Fell, Little Mell Fell, Longlands Fell, Lonscale Fell, Loughrigg Fell, Low Fell, Meal Fell, Middle Fell, Place Fell, Rosthwaite Fell, Sale Fell, Scoat Fell, Seathwaite Fell, Souther Fell, Steel Fell

Baystones (Wansfell), Bowfell, Catbells, Fellbarrow, Fleetwith Pike, Scafell, Scafell Pike

fjall (ON)

Drawn in the diagram: In-bye, intake and fell wall

Fell running

Running over open mountain terrain.

Racing or moving fast across rough, steep, often pathless fells — a sport born in the Lakes.

Cumbrian tradition.

Home to legends like Joss Naylor and Billy Bland; the Bob Graham its great test.

“Fell running is hill-walking with the brakes off.”

hill running

Bob Graham, Horseshoe

Fell walk

A hill walk on open upland or mountain.

The quintessential Lakeland day out — walking the open fells, on or off path.

The whole point of hikes.guide; 'fell-walking' is the regional term.

“A grand fell walk over four tops.”

hill walk

Fell, Fell running

Fell wall

The highest wall, between enclosed land and open fell.

The boundary between the walled fields below and the unenclosed fell above, where the sheep graze their heft. Going through it, by a gate or a stile, is the point where most climbs leave the farmland.

English, descriptive.

The National Park describes the land above the highest wall as open fell, with intake and in-bye fields below; on OS Explorer maps the access-land shading often starts here.

“Through the gate in the fell wall and we're on the open fell.”

intake wall, head dyke (Scotland)

Intake, Drystone wall, Hefted, Open access land, Gate, Stile

Drawn in the diagram: In-bye, intake and fell wall

First-aid kit

A pack of supplies for minor injuries.

Basic kit for blisters, cuts and sprains — part of the ten essentials.

Carried on every responsible fell day.

“Blister plasters live in the first-aid kit.”

The ten essentials, Group shelter

Fix the Fells

The partnership that repairs Lakeland's eroded upland paths.

National Trust and National Park rangers, working with volunteers, rebuild and maintain mountain paths with stone pitching and drains so that walkers' feet do not wear the fellsides away.

Many of the stone staircases and drained paths on busy fells are its work; the partners include the National Trust, the National Park Authority, Natural England, Friends of the Lake District and the Lake District Foundation.

“That new pitching on the Loughrigg path is Fix the Fells.”

Pitched path, Trail / Path, Right of way

Force /forss/

A waterfall.

The Lakeland word for a waterfall.

Old Norse 'fors', a waterfall.

Aira Force, Scale Force (the Lakes' highest single drop), Stock Ghyll Force, Skelwith Force.

“Aira Force thunders 20 m through a wooded gorge.”

fors (ON), foss, waterfall

Gill, Dub

Forecast window

The period a forecast covers (often 24–72 hrs).

How far ahead a forecast reliably reaches before mountain weather gets too volatile.

Check MWIS the night before; the mountain forecast window is short.

“The reliable window is about 48 hours.”

MWIS, Weather window

Forest

A large, mainly tree-covered area.

Extensive woodland with trails — though in fell names 'forest' can mean a treeless old hunting ground.

Whinlatter and Grizedale are working forests; 'Martindale Forest' is treeless deer ground.

“Forest trails wind up from the centre.”

Pike of Blisco

wood

Woodland, Whinlatter

Freeze-thaw

A cycle of freezing and melting.

Repeated freezing and thawing that shifts ice and loosens rock — a cause of rockfall and verglas.

Shapes the crags and makes spring ground unstable.

“Freeze-thaw had loosened the gully's rock.”

frost action

Verglas, Cornice

Freezing level

The altitude where the air hits 0°C.

Below it, rain; above it, snow and ice — it decides whether a winter route needs an axe and crampons.

Meteorology.

Forecasts quote it daily in winter.

“Freezing level's at 600 m, so the tops will be iced.”

Verglas, Crampons

Föhn /fern/

Warmer, drier air on the lee side of hills.

Moist air forced over high ground loses rain on the windward side and comes down the far side warmer and drier. The Met Office lists several causes, including heat released as cloud forms.

German 'Föhn', a warm Alpine wind, from Latin 'favonius', the west wind.

In a wet westerly, the east of the National Park and the Eden valley can be drier and brighter than Borrowdale; the Helm Wind off Cross Fell is often described as a föhn-type wind.

“Pouring in Wasdale, but Penrith's had a warm, bright afternoon.”

foehn, föhn effect, foehn effect

Helm Wind, Orographic rainfall, Lapse rate

Gaiters /GAY-terz/

Coverings protecting lower legs and boots.

Fabric sleeves over boot and shin to keep out water, mud, snow and scree.

Outdoor kit.

Invaluable in the Lakes' bogs and wet bracken.

“Gaiters kept the bog out of my boots.”

Boots, Bog-trot

Gap /gap/

A dip or notch in a ridge, often a way across.

A low point between two higher pieces of ground, used as a crossing. In Lakeland names it does much the same job as hause or col.

Old Norse 'gap', an opening or chasm.

Scarth Gap links Buttermere and Ennerdale, and Windy Gap sits between Great Gable and Green Gable.

“Drop to Windy Gap, then it's a stiff pull up Great Gable.”

Hindscarth, Ullscarf

gap (ON)

Col, Hause, Scarth, Pass, Great Gable

Garth /garth/

An enclosure or yard around a farm.

A small enclosed paddock, usually by a farmstead.

Old Norse 'garðr', an enclosure.

Dalegarth in Eskdale; Gatesgarth in Borrowdale.

“The campsite is in the farm's old garth.”

garðr (ON)

Intake, Ing

Gate /gayt/

A road, way or path (or a fell gate).

An old word for a way or track — and the literal gate onto the open fell.

Old Norse 'gata', a road/way.

Gatesgarth, Borrowdale; 'fell gates' onto access land.

“Park at Gatesgarth and start from the fell gate.”

gata (ON)

Intake, Bridleway

Gill / Ghyll /gill/

A narrow ravine and its stream.

A steep-sided rocky cleft carrying a stream; the spelling 'ghyll' is a Victorian romanticism.

Old Norse 'gil', a ravine.

Stock Ghyll Force, Dungeon Ghyll, Stickle Ghyll, the many 'gills' on the map.

“Stickle Ghyll tumbles down from Stickle Tarn.”

gil (ON)

Beck, Force, Ravine

Glaramara /glas-ra-MAR-a/

Prob. 'shieling by the ravines'.

A beautifully-named knobbly ridge in Borrowdale; once called Houedebergh.

Old Norse, from 'gljúfr' (ravine) + sætr (shieling).

One of the most musical names in the fells.

“Glaramara — the loveliest name in Lakeland.”

1 Wainwright named “Glaramara” Glaramara

Borrowdale, Allen Crags

Gorge

A deep, steep-sided river valley.

A narrow rocky defile cut by water, often with falls.

Lakeland gills cut small gorges.

“The beck tumbles through a wooded gorge.”

Clough Head

ravine

Gill, Force

GPS

Satellite positioning via device or phone.

A unit or app showing your position on a map — powerful, but no substitute for map-and-compass when batteries die.

Global Positioning System.

Most walkers use a phone app plus a paper map as backup.

“GPS puts us here — but check it against the map.”

sat-nav

GPX file, what3words, Map case

GPX file

The standard GPS route file format.

A file holding a route or track that loads into GPS apps — the format hikes.guide routes use.

GPS eXchange format.

Every hikes.guide route is downloadable as a GPX.

“Download the GPX into your app.”

track file

GPS, Track log, Route

Grade / Difficulty

An overall rating of a walk's challenge.

A summary weighing length, ascent, terrain, navigation and exposure.

hikes.guide rates routes on five axes: length, steepness, terrain, navigation, exposure.

“Graded moderate: 10 km, some rough ground.”

grading

Exposure, Technical terrain

Grade 1 scramble

The easiest scrambling — hands for balance.

Simple, non-technical scrambling; the boundary between walking and climbing.

Jack's Rake, Sharp Edge and Striding Edge are grade 1.

“An exposed but straightforward grade-1 scramble.”

Scramble, Grade 2-3 scramble

Grade 2-3 scramble

Steeper, committing scrambling near rock-climbing.

Harder scrambling with real exposure and sustained climbing; a rope is often wise.

Pinnacle Ridge on St Sunday Crag is a Lakeland grade-3 classic.

“Grade 3 — bordering on a roped climb.”

Grade 1 scramble, Mountaineering

Gradient

The steepness of a slope, as a ratio or percentage.

How sharply ground rises or falls; tightly-packed contours mean a steep gradient.

Steep gradients on pitched paths like Helvellyn's make slow climbing.

“A punishing gradient up the final cone.”

steepness

Contour line, Ascent

Great Gable /gay-bl/

'Great gable-shaped hill'.

The pyramid at the head of Wasdale; the emblem of the Lake District National Park.

Descriptive English — a gable end.

Its outline is the Park's logo; the war memorial is on its summit.

“Great Gable's profile is the Park's badge.”

1 Wainwright named “Great Gable” Great Gable

Napes, Sty Head

Grid bearing

A bearing measured from grid north on the map.

The angle between the map's vertical grid lines and your line of travel, read with the compass laid on the map. Allowing for the grid-magnetic angle turns it into the magnetic bearing you walk on.

Navigation term.

In the Lakes the grid-magnetic angle is small in the mid-2020s but changes every year, so use a current figure rather than an old map's.

“Take the grid bearing off the map, then allow for magnetic.”

map bearing

Bearing, The three norths, Magnetic north, True north, Grid square

Grid reference

An OS map coordinate.

A 4-, 6- or 10-figure number pinpointing a spot on the National Grid (eastings then northings).

Ordnance Survey National Grid.

How you give your location to mountain rescue.

“Six-figure grid ref: NY 215 073.”

grid ref, OSGB

Eastings, what3words

Grid square

A single kilometre square on the OS grid.

Each blue square on an OS map is 1 km across — the basis of a grid reference.

OS National Grid.

Counting squares is how you measure distance on the map.

“Two grid squares to the summit — about 2 km.”

kilometre square

Grid reference, Eastings

Grise / Gris /griess/

A young pig.

An element marking old pig-pastures.

Old Norse 'gríss', a young pig.

Grisedale ('valley of the pigs'), Grizedale Forest, Mungrisdale.

“Grisedale was once the valley of the swine.”

gríss (ON)

Harter, Brock

Group management

Keeping a party together and safe.

Matching pace to the slowest, keeping in contact and making shared decisions.

Key on exposed ground and in poor visibility.

“Good group management kept us together in the clag.”

Risk assessment, Exposure

Group shelter

A fabric bag that shelters a group.

A lightweight nylon 'bothy bag' you pull over a seated group to trap warmth in an emergency or a brutal lunch stop. Never run a stove inside one: it is a sealed bag, and burning fuel in it risks carbon monoxide.

Outdoor safety kit.

Cheap, tiny, and a genuine life-saver in Lakeland storms.

“We got the group shelter over us and drank from the flask till the squall passed.”

bothy bag, KISU

Survival bag, Exposure

Gully /GULL-ee/

A steep, narrow cleft cut into a crag or fellside.

A channel in steep ground, usually worn along a line of weaker rock, often holding a stream, loose stones or late snow. From above, a gully can look like a way down; many steepen, narrow or end in a drop that cannot be seen from the top.

From 'gullet', the throat.

Great End's gullies, above Sprinkling Tarn, are winter climbs, not walking routes.

“Don't take the gully down, it's loose all the way.”

Crag, Buttress, Scree, Re-entrant, Gill / Ghyll

Gusts

Short, strong bursts of wind above the average.

Sudden surges above the mean speed — what actually knocks you off balance on a ridge.

Gusts, not steady wind, are the danger on exposed edges.

“30 mph, gusting 60 — stay off the edges.”

Wind chill, Exposure

Handrail

A linear feature you follow.

A wall, fence, beck, ridge or path you keep alongside to stay on line.

Navigation term.

Drystone walls make superb handrails in mist.

“Use the wall as a handrail to the gate.”

Catching feature, Attack point

Hands-on

Needing your hands as well as your feet.

Route-description shorthand for ground where you reach for the rock to steady yourself or pull up. On its own it usually means a move or two; it does not by itself mean a graded scramble.

English.

Our route pages use it for short rocky moves, such as the summit tors of Harter Fell and Green Crag: a move or two, with no sustained exposure.

“It's hands-on for the last few metres, then you're on the top.”

Rock step, Scramble, Grade 1 scramble, Technical terrain, Exposure

Hanging valley

A side valley left high above the main valley.

A tributary valley whose floor sits above the deeper, glacier-carved main valley — often with a waterfall at the lip.

Geology term.

Many Lakeland forces tumble from hanging valleys.

“The beck pours from a hanging valley.”

Force, U-shaped valley

Hardshell / softshell

Waterproof vs breathable-windproof outer.

A hardshell is a fully waterproof jacket (e.g. Gore-Tex); a softshell is breathable and wind-resistant but not fully waterproof.

Outdoor kit.

In Lakeland rain, a hardshell is non-negotiable.

“Softshell for the climb, hardshell when it rains.”

waterproof, Gore-Tex

Layering, Hydrostatic head

Harter /har-ter/

Of the hart (deer).

An element meaning the deer-fell.

Old Norse 'hjartar', of the hart.

Harter Fell (Eskdale) and Harter Fell (Mardale).

“Both Harter Fells mean 'the deer hill'.”

2 Wainwrights named “Harter” Harter Fell (Eskdale), Harter Fell (Mardale)

hjartar (ON)

Grise, Brock, Nab

Hause /hawss/

A pass or saddle between hills.

A neck of high ground linking two fells or two dales — a walkers' crossing point.

Old Norse 'háls', a neck.

Esk Hause (the highest walkers' pass in the Lakes), Sticks Pass, Styhead.

“Esk Hause is the great crossroads of the central fells.”

háls (ON)

Col, Pass, Scarth

Drawn in the diagram: Col, hause and pass

Hawkshead /HAWKS-hed/

A small village between Windermere and Coniston.

A compact old village with a traffic-free centre, known for the grammar school Wordsworth attended and its Beatrix Potter connections.

Old Norse: the shieling (summer pasture) of a man called Haukr.

A base for low walks, to Latterbarrow and Tarn Hows, rather than for the high fells.

“Park at the edge of Hawkshead and walk in.”

Seat / Side, Low-level walk, Kirk

Haystacks /HAY-staks/

'Stack-shaped rocks'.

Wainwright's favourite fell, where his ashes were scattered (by Innominate Tarn).

Old Norse 'stakkr' (stack), or 'high rocks'.

The rough little fell above Buttermere.

“Haystacks was Wainwright's best-loved fell.”

1 Wainwright named “Haystacks” Haystacks

Hay Stacks

Headtorch / Headlamp

A head-worn light for low-light walking.

Hands-free light — essential as days shorten or a walk overruns into dusk.

One of the ten essentials, all year.

“Short winter days make a headtorch essential.”

head torch

The ten essentials, First-aid kit

Hefted /HEFT-ed/

Sheep instinctively bound to their patch of fell.

A 'heft' is a flock's home range on the open, unfenced fell, knowledge passed ewe to lamb — which is why the fells can be grazed without walls.

Old Norse 'hefð', custom/possession.

Underpins how open-fell farming works in the Lakes.

“The flock is hefted to that fellside.”

heaf, heft

Herdwick, Intake

Helm Wind /helm/

England's only named wind.

A fierce, cold north-easterly that roars down the western scarp of Cross Fell, marked by a stationary 'Helm Bar' cloud.

Local term, centuries old.

A Pennine/Cumbrian phenomenon on the edge of the National Park.

“The Helm Wind was howling off Cross Fell.”

Föhn, Cross Fell

Helvellyn /hel-VEL-in/

Probably 'pale/yellow moorland'.

England's third-highest and most-climbed big mountain; a rare Cumbric survival.

Cumbric, perhaps 'hal velyn', pale moor (Coates).

The Striding Edge giant above Ullswater and Thirlmere.

“Helvellyn's name is older than the Vikings.”

1 Wainwright named “Helvellyn” Helvellyn

Striding Edge, Red Tarn

Herdwick /HERD-wik/

The hardy native Lakeland sheep.

The grey, white-faced breed found almost nowhere else, central to fell farming and the landscape (and to Beatrix Potter).

Old Norse 'herdvyck', a sheep pasture.

You'll meet them on every fell; lambs are born black.

“Herdwicks graze right up to the summit.”

Herdy

Hefted, Intake

Hewitt /HEW-it/

A 2,000 ft hill with 30 m of drop.

Hill in England, Wales or Ireland over Two Thousand feet, with 30 m of prominence.

Acronym list, 1997.

Overlaps heavily with the higher Wainwrights.

“Most big Wainwrights are also Hewitts.”

Nuttall, Dewey

High-level route

A walk keeping to ridges and summits.

A route staying high on the tops rather than the valleys — big views, more exposure.

The ridge rounds are the great Lakeland high-level routes.

“A high-level route along the skyline.”

ridge route

Ridge, Horseshoe, Low-level walk

Hiker trash

Affectionate slang for scruffy long-distance hikers.

A badge-of-honour term thru-hikers give themselves after weeks on trail.

Trail slang.

More American, but known to UK long-distance walkers.

“Three weeks out and proudly hiker trash.”

Thru-hike

Hoar frost /hor/

Feathery ice crystals grown straight from the air.

Frost that forms when water vapour freezes directly onto cold grass, rock and fences on a clear, still night, leaving white spiky crystals. Rime is different: it builds up from freezing fog, on the side facing the wind.

Old English 'hār', grey or white-haired, as in 'hoary'.

Most often seen in the valleys on still, clear winter mornings, when the coldest air has settled at the bottom.

“Every blade of grass was white with hoar frost.”

hoarfrost

Temperature inversion, Katabatic wind, Freeze-thaw, Verglas

Holme /hohm/

An island, or a water-meadow.

A river island or a meadow lying above flood level.

Old Norse 'holmr', an island/meadow.

Ladyholme and Belle Isle on Windermere; Holme Wood on Loweswater.

“Holme Wood cloaks Loweswater's far shore.”

1 Wainwright named “Holme” Holme Fell

holmr (ON)

Ing, Garth

Hope /hohp/

A small, enclosed upland valley.

A side-valley or blind valley.

Old Norse 'hóp', a small bay/inlet, here a valley.

Hopegill Head above the Coledale round.

“Hopegill Head crowns a hidden little valley.”

hóp (ON)

Dale, Comb

Horseshoe / round

A circular ridge walk around a valley head.

A route that follows the skyline ridge all the way round a dale or tarn.

English.

The Fairfield Horseshoe, Mosedale Horseshoe, Coledale and Newlands Rounds, Kentmere Round.

“The Fairfield Horseshoe is the classic Ambleside round.”

the round, skyline

Ridge, Col, out-and-back

How / Howe /how/

A small hill or rounded mound.

A low hill or knoll; sometimes an ancient burial mound.

Old Norse 'haugr', a hill or grave-mound.

Tarn Hows ('hill tarn'), King's How, Birk How.

“Tarn Hows takes its name from the little hill — the 'how' — above the tarns.”

haugr (ON), hillock

Raise, Dodd

Hydration pack

A pack with a built-in water reservoir and tube.

A bladder-and-hose system letting you drink on the move.

Popular with fell runners and fast walkers.

“Sip from the hydration pack on the climb.”

bladder

Water filter, Daypack

Hydrostatic head

A lab measure of how waterproof a fabric is.

How tall a column of water, in millimetres, a fabric holds back before leaking; higher means more resistant. It rates the fabric only: seams, zips, wear and condensation also decide whether you stay dry.

Textile testing term.

Lakeland rain is long and wind-driven, and kneeling, sitting and rucksack straps press water into the fabric, so the figure is a starting point, not a promise.

“High hydrostatic head, but it's the zip that leaks.”

HH, water column

Hardshell / softshell, Waterproofs, Shell / Outer layer, Layering

Ice axe

Tool for snow ascent and self-arrest.

A walking/mountaineering axe used for balance, cutting steps and stopping a slide ('self-arrest') on snow.

Mountaineering.

Essential winter kit for the high fells; needs practice to use.

“Learn to self-arrest before you need the axe.”

Crampons, Self-arrest

In-bye /IN-by/

The best fields, nearest the farm in the valley bottom.

Enclosed, improved land close to the farmstead, used for hay or silage, lambing and the better grazing. Above it comes the intake, then the fell wall and the open fell.

Etymology uncertain.

The National Park describes the hill farm as in-bye in the valley bottom, then intake, then open fell; walkers cross in-bye fields on rights of way, not by access rights.

“The ewes are on the in-bye for lambing, so the dog stays on its lead.”

inbye, in-bye land

Intake, Hefted, Herdwick, Drystone wall, Meadow

Drawn in the diagram: In-bye, intake and fell wall

Insulated jacket

A warm jacket using synthetic fill or down.

A puffy warmth layer for cold stops and summits; synthetic copes with damp, down is lighter.

Invaluable for winter summits and breaks.

“On with the insulated jacket at the top.”

belay jacket

Down jacket, Layering

Intake /in-tayk/

Enclosed rough pasture taken in from the open fell.

The walled fields between the farm's in-bye land and the open fell.

Old Norse 'intaka', a taking-in.

The intake walls you cross at the start of nearly every fell climb.

“Above the intake wall, the open fell begins.”

intaka (ON)

Fell wall, Garth, Ing

Joss Naylor

The Wasdale fell runner known as the 'King of the Fells'.

Joss Naylor (1936–2024) set long-distance fell records through the 1970s, raising the Lakeland 24-hour record to 72 summits in 1975, and at 50 ran all 214 Wainwrights in just over seven days.

The Joss Naylor Lakeland Challenge, a long traverse from Pooley Bridge to Greendale Bridge open to runners over 50, carries his name.

“He ran every Wainwright in a week, at fifty.”

King of the Fells

Fell running, Bob Graham Round, The 214, Wainwright

Junction

A point where paths meet or cross.

A decision point on the ground — and a classic place to take a wrong turn in mist.

Path junctions on featureless ground are key checkpoints.

“Turn left at the path junction.”

fork

Waypoint, Route-finding

Katabatic wind /kat-a-BAT-ik/

Cold air flowing downhill.

On clear, still nights the ground cools the air against it, and that colder, heavier air drains down the slopes into the valleys. It is usually gentle, but it is why valley floors and hollows are often colder, frostier and mistier at dawn than the slopes above. Its daytime opposite, warm air creeping up the slopes, is an anabatic wind.

Greek 'katabatikos', going down.

Part of why Lakeland valleys hold frost and mist on calm mornings while the tops are clear, and one of the ways a temperature inversion starts.

“It's colder down by the car than it was halfway up.”

anabatic wind

Temperature inversion, Hoar frost, Lapse rate, Valley

Keld /keld/

A spring or well.

A spring of water.

Old Norse 'kelda', a spring.

Threlkeld ('the thrall's spring'), Cold Keld.

“Threlkeld sits at the foot of Blencathra.”

kelda (ON)

Beck, Dub

Kirk /kirk/

A church.

The northern word for church, in many place-names.

Old Norse 'kirkja', a church.

Kirkstone Pass, Kirk Fell, Kirkby.

“Kirkstone Pass is named for a church-shaped rock.”

1 Wainwright named “Kirk” Kirk Fell

kirkja (ON)

-by, -ton

Kissing gate

A gate that lets people but not livestock through.

A hinged gate swinging in a U- or V-enclosure.

English.

Common on valley paths through grazing land.

“Through the kissing gate and across the field.”

Stile

Knott /not/

A rocky knoll or craggy hill.

A knobbly, rock-topped hill or a rocky outcrop on a fellside.

Old Norse 'knöttr' / Old English 'cnotta', a rocky knoll.

Hard Knott, Knott Rigg, the many 'Knotts' dotted across the fells.

“Hard Knott guards the head of Eskdale.”

10 Wainwrights named “Knott” Gibson Knott, Grey Knotts, Hard Knott, Knott, Knott Rigg, Rannerdale Knotts, Shipman Knotts, Steel Knotts, The Knott (High Street), Thunacar Knott

knöttr (ON)

Crag, Nab, Dodd

Lakeland classics

The best-known Lakeland routes and ridges.

The roll-call of must-do outings — Striding Edge, Sharp Edge, the Fairfield Horseshoe and peers.

The routes every visiting walker has on their list.

“We ticked another Lakeland classic today.”

the classics

Striding Edge, Horseshoe

Lakeshore path

A trail running alongside a lake.

A level, scenic walk hugging the shore of one of the lakes.

Derwentwater, Buttermere and Windermere all have classic shore paths.

“The lakeshore path circles the whole lake.”

shore path

Low-level walk, Water

Lapse rate

How temperature falls with height.

Air cools roughly 6.5°C per 1,000 m climbed — a summit can be near freezing while the valley is mild.

Meteorology.

Explains why you need warm layers even on a 'nice day'.

“With the lapse rate, the summit'll be 6° colder than the car park.”

Freezing level, Wind chill

Layering /LAY-er-ing/

The base–mid–shell clothing system.

Dressing in a wicking baselayer, an insulating midlayer and a waterproof/windproof shell you add or shed as conditions change.

Outdoor practice.

The core skill for staying comfortable in fast-changing fell weather.

“Layer up on the summit, strip off on the climb.”

base/mid/shell

Hardshell, Wind chill

Leeward / Lee /LEE-wud/

The sheltered side, away from the wind.

The side of a hill, ridge, wall or boulder facing away from the wind. It is where you find shelter to stop, and where blown snow piles up as drifts, cornices and wind slab.

Old English 'hlēo', shelter.

On bare Lakeland tops the lee of a wall or a summit shelter is often the only calm spot.

“Let's get in the lee of the wall for lunch.”

Windward, Shelter, Cornice, Wind slab, Föhn

LNT / Leave No Trace

An ethic of minimising your impact outdoors.

Principles — take litter home, stick to paths, respect wildlife and livestock — to keep the fells unspoiled.

Leave No Trace movement.

Underpins responsible access to the fragile fells.

“Leave No Trace: pack it in, pack it out.”

Leave No Trace

Shortcut, Plogging

Lollipop route

An out-and-back with a loop at the far end.

A stick-and-loop shape: walk out, do a circuit, return down the stick.

A common shape for fell rounds reached by a single valley path.

“A lollipop round from the valley car park.”

Loop / Circuit, Out-and-back

Long-distance path

A named route walked over several days.

A route strung together from many days' walking, usually end to end. In England the official ones are National Trails, managed with Natural England's funding; many more are promoted by councils, charities or guidebooks.

English.

The Cumbria Way runs through the Lakes, and the Dales Way ends at Bowness-on-Windermere.

“We're doing the Cumbria Way in five days, Ulverston to Carlisle.”

long-distance trail, National Trail

Coast to Coast, Waymarked trail, Thru-hike, Route

Loop / Circuit

A route returning to the start by a different way.

A circular walk — out one way, back another — usually better than retracing steps.

The lake circuits and fell horseshoes are classic Lakeland loops.

“A four-mile loop round the tarn.”

circular, round

Horseshoe, Out-and-back

Low-level walk

A valley or lakeshore route with little ascent.

A gentle walk that stays low — ideal for poor weather, families or a rest day.

The hikes.guide easy-walks page is full of these.

“A low-level walk by the lake when the tops are in clag.”

valley walk

Lakeshore path, Easy walk

Magnetic north

The direction a compass needle points.

Where your compass points — close to grid north in the UK as of 2026, but check the year's variation.

Geomagnetism.

One of the 'three norths' every navigator reconciles.

“The needle points to magnetic north, not the grid.”

The three norths, True north

Man /man/

A summit cairn; by extension, a summit.

A 'man' is a built pile of stones marking a top — and so the top itself.

Dialect; the 'Old Man' element is from Brythonic 'maen', a stone.

The Old Man of Coniston; the summit cairn called the 'Old Man'.

“We had lunch by the Old Man's cairn.”

3 Wainwrights named “Man” Sergeant Man, Skiddaw Little Man, The Old Man of Coniston

Carl Side, Shipman Knotts

maen (Brythonic)

Raise, cairn, The Old Man of Coniston

Map case

A waterproof holder for paper maps.

Keeps a paper OS map readable in the rain — simple, cheap, reliable.

Vital given Lakeland weather; a wet map disintegrates.

“The map case keeps the OS sheet dry.”

OS Explorer, Waterproofs

Marilyn /MAR-i-lin/

A hill of any height with 150 m of drop.

Defined purely by prominence — 150 m of descent on all sides — so a small but isolated hill can be a Marilyn while a high bump isn't.

Alan Dawson (1992); a pun on 'Munro'.

A cult list across all of Britain and Ireland.

“Tiny, but it's a Marilyn — 150 m all round.”

Nuttall, Hewitt

Marsh

Low-lying wetland of grasses and reeds.

Soggy valley-bottom ground, grassier and lower than upland bog.

Valley marshes border many lakes and tarns.

“Boardwalks cross the lakeside marsh.”

Mardale Ill Bell

fen

Bog, Mire

Meadow

A grassy, usually flat area.

Open grassland, classically the flower-rich hay meadows of the valley floors.

Traditional Lakeland hay meadows are a conservation priority.

“Wildflower meadows line the river.”

Holme Fell, Walla Crag, Whiteless Pike

ing

Ing, Holme

Mell / Mel /mel/

A rounded, conical hill.

A smoothly conical hill.

Old Norse 'múli' (a snout); poss. Celtic 'moel', bare hill.

Great Mell Fell and Little Mell Fell near Ullswater; Mellbreak above Crummock.

“Great Mell Fell is a perfect grassy dome.”

múli (ON)

Dodd, How

Mere /meer/

A lake.

An Old English word for a lake, surviving in the big valley lakes.

Old English 'mere', a pond or lake.

Windermere, Buttermere, Grasmere — but note Windermere already means 'lake', so 'Lake Windermere' says it twice.

“Strictly, it's just 'Windermere' — the 'mere' is the lake.”

mere (OE)

Water, Tarn

Mickle /mik-l/

Big or great.

An element meaning large.

Old Norse 'mikill' / Old English 'micel', great.

Mickledore ('the great gap' between Scafell and Scafell Pike); Mickleden.

“Mickledore is the great breach below Scafell.”

mikill (ON)

Mickledore

Mickledore /MIK-l-dor/

'The great gap/door'.

The narrow col linking Scafell Pike to Scafell — and the crux of getting between them.

Old Norse 'mikill' (great) + 'dyrr' (door).

The notch that turns two summits into a serious mountaineering problem.

“Mickledore is the great door between the Scafells.”

Scafell, Broad Stand

Microspikes

Light traction chains for icy paths.

Slip-on rubber harnesses with short chains/spikes for frozen paths — not a substitute for crampons on steep snow.

Modern trail kit.

Ideal for icy valley and low-fell paths.

“Microspikes were perfect for the frozen path to the tarn.”

spikes, grips

Crampons, Ice axe

Mid-layer

An insulating layer over the base layer.

The warmth layer — fleece or light synthetic — added or shed as you climb and stop.

Core part of dressing for changeable fell weather.

“Add a mid-layer at the windy summit.”

midlayer

Layering, Base layer

Mire /mire/

A bog or marsh.

Saturated, often dangerous boggy ground.

Old Norse 'mýrr', a bog.

Mirehouse near Keswick; valley mires everywhere.

“Keep to the edge of the mire.”

mýrr (ON)

Moss, Hag, Bog

Moderate walk

A longer or hillier outing needing some fitness.

A step up — more distance or ascent, basic navigation and some rough ground.

Most single Wainwrights fall in the moderate band.

“A moderate walk with one steep pull.”

Grade / Difficulty, Fell walk

Moorland

Open, often boggy upland of heather and grass.

Treeless rough country, frequently wet, typical of the lower fells and Pennine fringe.

Much of the eastern Lakeland edge is open moorland.

“Miles of open moorland.”

Grasmoor, Helvellyn

moor

Bog, Moss, Fell

Moraine /mo-RAIN/

Rock and soil dumped by a glacier.

Debris a glacier carried and then left behind, as ridges across a valley, banks along its sides or fields of small hummocks. The mounds are mixed boulders, gravel and clay, not solid rock.

French 'moraine', from an Alpine dialect word for a bank of debris.

Hummocks left by the last small glaciers, about 12,000 years ago, fill valley heads such as Mickleden and Langdale Combe above Great Langdale.

“Those grassy hummocks at the head of the valley are moraine.”

hummocky moraine

Erratic, Hanging valley, Corrie / Cirque / Cwm, Valley, Tarn

Moss /moss/

A bog or mossy moor.

Wet, peaty moorland.

Old Norse 'mosi', a bog.

Burnmoor, the many 'mosses' that catch out walkers.

“The moss is ankle-deep after rain.”

mosi (ON)

Mire, Sphagnum, Hag

Mountaineering

Movement in mountains, sometimes on rock, snow or ice.

Beyond walking and scrambling — technical ground needing ropes, axes and crampons.

Winter on the high fells becomes genuine mountaineering.

“Winter Helvellyn is a mountaineering day, not a walk.”

Ice axe, Crampon rating (C1–C3)

Munro /MUN-roh/

A Scottish mountain of 3,000 ft+.

A Scottish summit over 3,000 ft (914.4 m); 'Munro-bagging' is the Scottish equivalent of doing the Wainwrights.

Sir Hugh Munro's 1891 Tables.

Not a Lakeland list — Munro is a Scottish classification, so England has none however high its fells; Scafell Pike, at 978 m, clears 3,000 ft comfortably — but the bagging culture is shared.

“After the Wainwrights, he headed north for the Munros.”

Corbett, Wainwright

MWIS /EM-wiss/

The mountain weather forecast.

The Mountain Weather Information Service — free, mountain-specific forecasts (cloud, wind, freezing level, 'chance of cloud-free summits').

Mountain Weather Information Service.

The forecast most fell-walkers check the night before.

“MWIS gives 80% cloud-free Lakeland summits tomorrow.”

mountain forecast

Inversion, Freezing level

Nab /nab/

A projecting spur or knoll.

A blunt promontory of higher ground jutting from a fell.

Old Norse 'nabbi', a projecting peak.

The Nab in Martindale (deer sanctuary), Nab Scar above Rydal.

“The Nab sits deep in Martindale's red-deer country.”

2 Wainwrights named “Nab” Nab Scar, The Nab

nabbi (ON)

Spur, Knott, Scar

Naismith's rule /NAY-smith/

A way to estimate walking time.

Allow about 1 hour per 5 km (3 mph), plus roughly 1 minute for every 10 m of ascent (about 30 min per 300 m).

Devised by W. W. Naismith, 1892.

The basis of the time estimates on route cards.

“Naismith gives us four hours for the round.”

Naismith

Pacing

Napes

The crags on Great Gable's south face.

Tiers of rock ridges and gullies high above Wasdale, home to Napes Needle, a detached pinnacle whose solo ascent by W. P. Haskett Smith in 1886 is often taken as the start of rock climbing as a sport in England.

Etymology uncertain.

A rough traverse path under the crags gives walkers a close view of the Needle; the ridges above it are climbers' ground.

“From the traverse path the Needle stands clear of the Napes.”

the Napes, Great Napes

Great Gable, Crag, Scramble, Outcrop

Navigation skills

Reading maps, using a compass and the ground.

The core competence that keeps you found — map, compass, contour-reading and terrain sense.

Indispensable on the cloud-prone Lakeland fells.

“Solid nav skills matter most when the clag comes down.”

nav

Bearing, Contour line, Route-finding

Notch

A small, sharp dip in a ridge.

A narrow, steep-sided gap cut into a ridge line, smaller and more abrupt than a col. Walking the ridge, you drop into it and climb straight out again.

English; probably from Old French 'oche', a nick, with the n taken from 'an'.

Our route pages call Wind Gap on the Mosedale Horseshoe, Great Door on Yewbarrow and Beck Head between Great Gable and Kirk Fell notches.

“Down into the notch, then a short pull out the other side.”

Hindscarth, Ullscarf

Gap, Col, Hause, Scarth, Ridge

Nuttall /NUT-l/

A 2,000 ft+ summit with 15 m of prominence.

Any English/Welsh hill of 2,000 ft (610 m) or more rising 15 m on all sides.

John & Anne Nuttall (1990).

Sorts the genuine 2,000-footers from subsidiary bumps.

“It clears 15 m all round, so it's a Nuttall.”

Hewitt, Marilyn

Névé / Old snow /NAY-vay/

Old snow that has settled and hardened.

Snow that has lain for a while, thawed and refrozen until it is dense and granular. In good conditions it gives firm, even walking; frozen hard, it is slippery.

Swiss French 'névé', from Latin 'nix, nivis', snow.

Lingers in shaded hollows and gullies on the high fells well into spring, after the open slopes have cleared.

“Only a few patches of old snow left in the gullies now.”

firn

Crampons, Microspikes, Freeze-thaw, Verglas, Cornice

Open access land

Land you may walk freely under the CRoW Act.

Mapped 'open country' (mountain, moor, heath, down) where you can roam off paths.

Countryside & Rights of Way Act 2000.

Almost all the high fells are access land.

“Above the wall it's open access — roam at will.”

Access Land, CRoW

Right to roam

Ordnance Survey (OS) map

The standard British topographic map.

The national mapping every UK hill-walker carries, showing relief, paths and rights of way.

Ordnance Survey, est. 1791.

Lakeland is covered by OS Explorer OL4–OL7.

“Carry the OS map and know how to read it.”

OS map

OS Explorer, OS Landranger, Grid reference

Orographic rainfall /or-o-GRAF-ik/

Rain caused by hills forcing air upward.

Moist Atlantic air rises over the western fells, cools and dumps its rain — which is why the Lakes are the wettest place in England.

Meteorology.

Seathwaite in Borrowdale is England's wettest inhabited spot (~3,300 mm/yr).

“It's orographic rain — the fells wring out the Atlantic.”

relief rainfall

Rain shadow, Lapse rate

OS Explorer

The 1:25,000 OS map series.

The large-scale, detailed maps (orange covers) showing field boundaries and access land.

Ordnance Survey.

The Lakes need just four: OL4, OL5, OL6, OL7.

“OL6 covers the south-western fells.”

1:25k, OL series

OS Landranger, Scale (map)

OS Landranger

The 1:50,000 OS map series.

Medium-scale maps (pink covers) — less detail, more ground per sheet, good for planning.

Ordnance Survey.

Useful for seeing whole regions at a glance.

“The Landranger shows the wider area.”

1:50k

OS Explorer, Scale (map)

Out-and-back

A route returning by the outward path.

There and back the same way — simple to navigate, good when one approach is far better.

Many easy Lakeland walks (to a waterfall) are out-and-back.

“An easy out-and-back to the falls.”

there-and-back

Loop / Circuit, Lollipop route

Outcrop

Exposed rock breaking through soil or turf.

A small protrusion of bedrock — a handy landmark and sometimes a mini-scramble.

Rocky outcrops stud the grassy fells.

“Aim for the outcrop on the skyline.”

Crag, Scar

Pacing

Counting paces to measure distance.

Knowing how many double-paces you take per 100 m lets you measure distance walked in poor visibility.

Navigation technique.

Combined with timing to nail a position in cloud.

“Pace out 300 m on this bearing to the col.”

pace counting

Naismith's rule

Pack / Backpack / Rucksack

The bag carried on your back for gear.

Your carry-all, sized to the trip — a daypack for a day, a bigger sack for overnights.

20–35 litres suits most Lakeland day walks.

“Everything for the day goes in the rucksack.”

sack

Daypack, Hydration pack

Pass

A route through hills linking two valleys.

The lowest crossing over a range; in the Lakes often a road pass as well.

Honister, Kirkstone (highest year-round road pass) and Wrynose are classics.

“Kirkstone is the highest road pass in the Lakes.”

Hindscarth, Ullscarf

col, hause

Hause, Col

Drawn in the diagram: Col, hause and pass

Peak

A prominent or pointed summit.

A high point, especially a sharp one; used loosely for any summit.

The Lakeland word for a sharp peak is 'pike'.

“A shapely peak above the tarn.”

Angletarn Pikes, Arthur's Pike, Blencathra, Bonscale Pike, Causey Pike, Cold Pike, Dollywaggon Pike, Esk Pike, Fleetwith Pike, Great Gable, Grisedale Pike, Heron Pike, High Pike (Caldbeck), High Pike (Scandale), Kentmere Pike, Kidsty Pike, Low Pike, Nab Scar, Nethermost Pike, Pike of Blisco, Pike of Stickle, Red Pike (Buttermere), Red Pike (Wasdale), Rossett Pike…

summit, pike

Pike, Summit

Peat hag /hag/

An eroded bank or gully of bare peat.

A steep-sided channel cut into a peat bog — awkward and tiring to cross.

'Hag' from Old Norse 'hagi'/dialect.

The high plateaux (e.g. around Skiddaw, the Pennines) are riddled with hags.

“We threaded between the peat hags.”

groughs, hag

Moss, Mire

Permissive path

A path the landowner lets you use, not a right of way.

A path used by the owner's permission, which can be limited to some users or times and withdrawn; it is not a public right of way. Shown on OS Explorer maps, not on Landranger.

Legal usage: by permission, not by right.

Permissive paths are common in Lakeland woods and along lakeshores, often on National Trust land; the signs on the ground say who may use them.

“It's a permissive path: fine to walk today, but it isn't a right of way.”

permitted path, concessionary path

Right of way, Open access land, Trail / Path

Pike /piek/

A peak or sharp, pointed summit.

One of the commonest Lakeland summit words, for a distinct pointed top.

Old Norse 'pík', a peak.

Scafell Pike (England's highest at 978 m), Causey Pike, Dollywaggon Pike, the Langdale Pikes.

“Scafell Pike is the highest pike of all.”

27 Wainwrights named “Pike” Angletarn Pikes, Arthur's Pike, Bonscale Pike, Causey Pike, Cold Pike, Dollywaggon Pike, Esk Pike, Fleetwith Pike, Grisedale Pike, Heron Pike, High Pike (Caldbeck), High Pike (Scandale), Kentmere Pike, Kidsty Pike, Low Pike, Nethermost Pike, Pike of Blisco, Pike of Stickle, Red Pike (Buttermere), Red Pike (Wasdale), Rossett Pike, Scafell Pike, Selside Pike, Sheffield Pike, Stony Cove Pike, Ullock Pike, Whiteless Pike

pík (ON)

Dodd, Knott, Crag

Pike-bagging

Collecting several 'Pike'-named summits in one outing.

A playful sub-quest ticking off tops that share the 'Pike' name.

A nod to how many Lakeland summits carry 'Pike'.

“A cheeky bit of pike-bagging along the ridge.”

Pike, Bagging

Pitched path

A footpath repaired with set stones.

A staircase of embedded stones built to stop erosion on popular routes.

Fix the Fells / NT conservation.

The path up Helvellyn and many honeypot fells are pitched.

“The pitched path saves the fellside from erosion.”

stone pitching

Erosion, Fix the Fells

Plateau /pla-TOH/

A flat, elevated area of high ground.

A broad level summit — easy walking but treacherous to navigate in cloud, with few features.

French.

Skiddaw's and High Street's summit plateaux are notorious in mist.

“The plateau is featureless — navigate on a bearing.”

tableland

White-out, Bearing

Plogging

Picking up litter while walking or running.

Combining exercise with litter-collection — a small Leave No Trace act.

Swedish 'plocka upp' + jogging.

A growing habit on busy honeypots.

“A bit of plogging on the way down.”

LNT / Leave No Trace

Post-holing

Sinking deep into soft snow at each step.

Exhausting progress where every footfall punches through the crust.

Hiking slang.

A slog on thawing Lakeland snow.

“Post-holing through deep snow halved our pace.”

Slush, Freeze-thaw

Precipitation

Any rain, sleet, hail or snow.

The catch-all forecast term for water falling from the sky in any form.

Latin.

The western Lakes get a lot of it — England's wettest ground.

“Persistent precipitation all afternoon.”

Orographic rainfall, Sleet

Prominence

How far a summit rises above its highest connecting col.

The height a summit rises above the highest col joining it to higher ground, also called its drop. A high point on a big ridge can have little; a low, isolated hill a lot.

Latin 'prominere', to jut out; 'drop' and 'relative height' are the British hill-list words.

The hill lists turn on it, from a Marilyn's 150 m of drop to a Hewitt's 30 m; Broad Crag and Ill Crag top 900 m yet rise only a little above the ridge joining them to Scafell Pike.

“It's higher than the next top, but it's only got 20 m of drop.”

drop, relative height

Marilyn, Hewitt, Nuttall, Col, Summit, Elevation

Public bridleway

A right of way for walkers, horse riders and cyclists.

A right of way on foot, on horseback and by bicycle, also open to mobility scooters and powered wheelchairs but not to motor vehicles; cyclists must give way. Blue waymark arrows; long green dashes on OS Explorer maps.

From 'bridle', a horse's headgear: a way for ridden horses.

Many Lakeland valley tracks are bridleways, so expect mountain bikes, and now and then horses, on them.

“It's a bridleway; keep an ear out for bikes coming down.”

bridleway

Right of way, Track, Gate, Trail / Path

Public footpath

A public right of way on foot.

A right of way on foot, whoever owns the land, also open to mobility scooters and powered wheelchairs but not to bicycles, horses or cars. Yellow waymark arrows; short green dashes on OS Explorer maps.

Highways law; recorded on the council's definitive map.

In the Lakes most footpaths cross the valleys and farmland; above the fell wall much of the ground is open access land, where you may leave the path anyway.

“It's a footpath, so the bikes go round by the bridleway.”

footpath

Right of way, Open access land, Stile, Kissing gate, Trail / Path

Rain shadow

A drier area downwind of high ground.

Air rising over hills sheds much of its moisture on the windward slopes, so the land downwind gets less rain. It holds across a season more than on any given day.

Meteorology.

With the prevailing winds from the west, the central and western fells are far wetter than the eastern edge of the National Park and the Eden valley beyond.

“Wet in the west again; let's try the eastern fells.”

Orographic rainfall, Precipitation, Helm Wind

Raise /rayz/

A cairn or stone heap; a hill topped by one.

A pile of stones, or a fell named for one.

Old Norse 'hreysi', a cairn.

High Raise, Stybarrow Dodd's neighbour 'Raise' on the Helvellyn range.

“Raise carries the Lakes' only ski tow on its flank.”

3 Wainwrights named “Raise” High Raise (High Street), High Raise (Langdale), Raise

hreysi (ON)

cairn, Man, How

Rake /rayk/

A diagonal track or ramp across a crag.

An oblique line of weakness giving a route across steep ground.

Possibly Old Norse 'rák', a stripe/track.

Jack's Rake on Pavey Ark — a famous grade-1 scramble; Lord's Rake on Scafell.

“Jack's Rake slices up the face of Pavey Ark.”

rák (ON)

scramble, Scarth

Drawn in the diagram: Crag, buttress, rake, slab and scree

Ramp

A band of easier ground climbing at an angle across steeper ground.

A sloping shelf of rock or grass that rises diagonally across a face or fellside and gives a natural line through it. It is the same idea as a rake, usually shorter and less deeply cut.

From French 'ramper', to climb or creep.

Our route pages use it for grass as well as rock: Blencathra's Blease Fell is described as one big grassy ramp, with a zig-zag path up it.

“Follow the ramp up and left and it brings you out above the crag.”

Rake, Terrace, Slab, Crag, Scramble

Re-entrant /ree-EN-trant/

A small valley indenting a slope.

A shallow gully where contours point uphill — the opposite of a spur.

Navigation term.

Used as navigation features on open fellsides.

“Descend into the re-entrant, then the beck.”

gully

Spur, Contour

Drawn in the diagram: Ridge, spur, re-entrant and valley

Red Tarn

Helvellyn's corrie tarn, between the two edges.

The tarn in the ice-carved hollow on Helvellyn's east side, walled by Striding Edge to the south and Swirral Edge to the north. It is one of the few waters where the schelly, a rare whitefish, still lives.

Etymology uncertain.

The landmark and usual pause on the Glenridding round of the edges; a second, smaller Red Tarn lies between Pike of Blisco and Cold Pike, so check which one a route means.

“We stopped at Red Tarn and looked up at the edges.”

Tarn, Helvellyn, Striding Edge, Corrie / Cirque / Cwm, Cove

Relocation

Working out where you are after losing track.

Re-establishing where you are once you are no longer sure: stop, recall your last certain point and how far you have come, and match the ground to the map. Going back to that point is often simplest.

Navigation term.

In Lakeland cloud, the shape of the ground (which way the slope falls, becks, walls) is often more use than distant landmarks.

“We'd lost the path, so we stopped and worked back from the last wall corner.”

relocating

Navigation skills, Catching feature, Handrail, Attack point, Pacing, Naismith's rule, GPS

Resection /ree-SEK-shun/

Fixing your position from bearings to known landmarks.

Fixing your position by drawing bearings to two or three identified landmarks back across the map; roughly where the lines cross is where you are. An advanced technique, and only as good as the landmarks.

Surveying term.

It needs features you can see, so in Lakeland cloud it is often unavailable, and relocation falls back on the slope and ground around you.

“Lines from the tarn and the summit cairn cross just below us.”

Bearing, Navigation skills, The three norths, Grid reference, GPS

Restricted byway

A right of way for everything except motor vehicles.

Open to walkers, horse riders, cyclists and horse-drawn vehicles, and to mobility scooters and powered wheelchairs, but not to cars or motorbikes. Plum-coloured waymark arrows.

Legal category.

Some old Lakeland passes and stony lanes are restricted byways, which is why a track wide enough for a car can still be closed to motors.

“Restricted byway: bikes and horses fine, no motorbikes.”

Right of way, Track, Pass

Ridge

A line of high ground between valleys.

A continuous crest linking summits — often the most scenic, and when narrow the most exposed, line of a walk.

Lakeland ridge rounds are among the finest in England.

“We followed the ridge over four tops.”

Blea Rigg, Catstye Cam, Great Rigg, Hen Comb, High Rigg, Knott Rigg, Lank Rigg, Latrigg, Loughrigg Fell, Whin Rigg

crest

Edge, Arête, Horseshoe

Drawn in the diagram: Ridge, spur, re-entrant and valley

Drawn in the diagram: Col, hause and pass

Rigg /rig/

A ridge.

A ridge or long crest of high ground.

Old Norse 'hryggr', a ridge (literally a back/spine).

High Rigg, Knott Rigg, Riggindale (the eagle valley) on Mardale.

“High Rigg is a perfect short ridge between two valleys.”

6 Wainwrights named “Rigg” Blea Rigg, Great Rigg, High Rigg, Knott Rigg, Lank Rigg, Whin Rigg

hryggr (ON)

Edge, Band, Spur

Right of way

A public path you're legally entitled to use.

Footpaths, bridleways and byways shown on the map and protected in law.

Highways law.

The Lakes' valleys are laced with ancient rights of way.

“It's a public footpath — a right of way.”

bridleway, byway, public right of way, PRoW

Access Land, Permissive path

Right to roam

In England, a right to walk on mapped access land, not everywhere.

The popular name for the right, under the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000, to walk, run, climb and watch wildlife on mapped access land; it does not include camping, cycling or horse riding. Scotland's broader access rights include responsible lightweight camping.

Popular term; in England the law is the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 (CRoW).

Most of the high fells are open access land, so you may leave the paths there; in the valleys and in-bye fields, keep to the rights of way.

“Above the wall it's access land and we can go where we like; in the fields it's the footpath.”

freedom to roam, CRoW access

Open access land, Right of way, Wild camping, Intake

Risk assessment

Judging the hazards before and during a walk.

Weighing weather, terrain, daylight and group ability to decide if and how to proceed.

The thinking behind every safe Lakeland day.

“Our risk assessment ruled out the edge in that wind.”

Turn-back time, Group management

Rock step

A short, abrupt rise of rock across a path or ridge.

A single steep band, often only a few metres high, that needs a big step up or a hand or two before easier ground resumes. A scramble keeps the hands busy for longer.

English, descriptive.

The Bad Step on Crinkle Crags is a well-known rock step on a Lakeland walking route, and a path goes round it.

“There's one rock step near the top: hands for a moment, then it's walking again.”

step

Scramble, Grade 1 scramble, Technical terrain, Outcrop, Exposure

Route

A planned line from start to finish.

The chosen way through, as described in a guide or recorded as a GPX track.

Every hikes.guide route is a planned line with distance, ascent and a map.

“Plan your route before you set off.”

line

GPX file, Waypoint

Route-finding

Choosing the way on the ground.

The real-time decisions that turn a planned route into reality.

Crucial on pathless or complex Lakeland ground.

“Route-finding is half the skill on a trackless fell.”

wayfinding

Navigation skills, Junction

Runout

What lies below a slope if you slip.

The ground a slide or fall would carry you onto. A slope with a safe runout eases out gently onto flat ground; a poor one ends in rocks, a crag edge or a gully. Walkers use it mostly of snow and steep grass.

English, mountaineering.

A word from winter walking and scrambling, used of the steep snow and grass slopes of the high fells.

“It's not that steep, but look at the runout.”

run-out

Exposure, Self-arrest, Ice axe, Gully, Aspect

Scafell Pike /SCAW-fel piek/

'Bald/bare fell peak' — England's highest.

At 978 m, the highest ground in England, ringed by Scafell, Great End and Lingmell.

Old Norse 'skalli' (bald) + fell + pík.

The roof of England, reached from Wasdale, Borrowdale or Langdale.

“Scafell Pike is England's highest point.”

1 Wainwright named “Scafell Pike” Scafell Pike

Mickledore, Scafell

Scale /skayl/

A shieling or summer hut.

A temporary hut used by herders at the summer pastures.

Old Norse 'skáli', a hut.

Scale Force ('waterfall by the shieling'), Seascale, Portinscale.

“Scale Force is named for an old shieling nearby.”

Lonscale Fell

skáli (ON)

Seat, Side, Erg

Scale (map)

The ratio of map distance to ground distance.

Tells you how much ground each measurement represents — 1:25,000 means 1 cm = 250 m.

Cartography.

Choosing the right scale (1:25k for detail) matters on complex fell ground.

“At 1:25,000, 4 cm is 1 km.”

map scale

OS Explorer, Grid square

Scar / Scaur /skar/

A bare rock outcrop or small cliff.

An exposed band of rock breaking through a fellside.

Old Norse 'sker', an isolated rock.

Nab Scar above Rydal, Whitbarrow Scar, Scout Scar near Kendal.

“Nab Scar is the steep start of the Fairfield Horseshoe.”

sker (ON)

Crag, Screes, Edge

Scarth /skarth/

A notch, gap or pass.

A cleft or low crossing point.

Old Norse 'skarð', a notch/pass.

Scarth Gap between Buttermere and Ennerdale.

“Scarth Gap links Buttermere to Ennerdale.”

skarð (ON)

Hause, Col, Gap

Scramble /SKRAM-bl/

Ascent using hands as well as feet.

Ground between walking and rock-climbing; graded 1 (easy) to 3 (serious).

English.

Jack's Rake (grade 1), Sharp Edge (grade 1), Pinnacle Ridge (grade 3).

“It's an airy grade-1 scramble.”

Grade, Exposure, Rake

Scree /skree/

Loose rock fragments on a slope.

Broken rock that slides underfoot; tiring to climb, fast (and risky) to descend.

Old Norse 'skriða' (landslip) — see 'Screes'.

The Wastwater and Great End screes are the most notorious.

“Descend the scree run with care.”

1 Wainwright named “Scree” Red Screes

Screes, talus, scree fan, scree cone

Screes, Scar

Drawn in the diagram: Crag, buttress, rake, slab and scree

Screes /skreez/

Slopes of loose, broken rock.

Fans of shattered rock fragments tumbling down a steep slope.

Old Norse 'skriða', a landslip.

The Wastwater Screes, plunging straight into England's deepest lake.

“The Wastwater Screes are Britain's most dramatic scree slopes.”

1 Wainwright named “Screes” Red Screes

skriða (ON)

Scar, Scree, talus

Seat / Side /seet / side/

A shieling (summer farmstead).

Both elements come from the same Norse word for a summer pasture-farm.

Old Norse 'sætr', a shieling.

Seat Sandal, Carl Side (Carl's shieling), Hawkshead (Haukr's shieling).

“Carl Side is 'Carl's summer farm' on Skiddaw's flank.”

sætr (ON)

Scale, Erg

Self-arrest

Stopping your own slide on snow with an ice axe.

Braking a slide on a snow slope with an ice axe. It has to be taught in person and practised on safe ground, and it is much less reliable on hard, icy snow.

Mountaineering term.

Winter skills courses in the Lakes, including the National Park's days with its Fell Top Assessors, cover ice axe and crampon use.

“Do a winter skills course before you count on self-arrest.”

ice-axe arrest

Ice axe, Crampon rating (C1–C3), Cornice, Freezing level, Risk assessment

Sharp Edge

Blencathra's knife-edge ridge above Scales Tarn.

A narrow crest of rock climbing from Scales Tarn to Foule Crag and the top of Blencathra. It is a grade 1 scramble, not a walk: you will use your hands, with steep drops on both sides.

Descriptive English.

Keswick Mountain Rescue warns that the polished rock is very slippery when wet and even while drying; treat it as serious, go only when it is dry and calm, and use Scales Fell or Blease Fell if in any doubt.

“It had rained overnight, so we left Sharp Edge for another day.”

Blencathra, Edge, Arête, Grade 1 scramble, Exposure

Sheepfold

A drystone pen for gathering or holding sheep.

A walled enclosure, sometimes split into several pens, used when sheep come down from the fell for clipping, dipping or sorting. Many are old and no longer used, but their walls still stand.

Old English 'fald', a pen, with 'sheep'.

OS Explorer maps label many as 'Sheepfold' or 'Fold', so they make useful small navigation targets on the open fell.

“Aim for the sheepfold by the beck, then pick up the path.”

fold

Drystone wall, Attack point, Hefted, Herdwick, Intake

Drawn in the diagram: In-bye, intake and fell wall

Shell / Outer layer

A waterproof or windproof outer jacket.

The top layer blocking rain and wind — your defence against Lakeland weather.

A reliable shell is non-negotiable in the Lakes.

“Get the shell on before the front arrives.”

outer, jacket

Hardshell / softshell, Waterproofs

Shelter

Anything that gets you out of the wind and wet.

Either a stone windbreak on a summit, usually a low curved or cross-shaped wall, or the emergency shelter you carry. Neither is a bothy, which is a roofed building.

Etymology uncertain.

Many Lakeland summits have a stone wind shelter; Helvellyn's is cross-shaped, so one side is out of the wind whatever its direction.

“We ate lunch in the lee of the summit shelter.”

Catbells, Glaramara

wind shelter, summit shelter

Bothy, Group shelter, Survival bag / Bivi bag, Summit, Wind chill

Shortcut

An informal direct line, often discouraged.

A desire line that cuts a corner — usually causing erosion and best avoided on busy fells.

Short-cutting zigzags scars the fellside; Fix the Fells asks walkers not to.

“Don't shortcut the zigzags — it erodes the path.”

Desire line, Pitched path

Shoulder

A broad, easier-angled step on a hillside or ridge.

A rounded, flatter section where the slope eases, usually below a summit, before the ground steepens again. It is a change of angle, not a separate top.

English, by likeness to the human shoulder.

Lakeland route descriptions often name a shoulder as the place where a long climb eases before the final pull to the summit.

“Once we're on the shoulder it eases off for a bit.”

Band, Ridge, Summit, False summit, Gradient

Sike / Syke /siek/

A small, often boggy ditch-stream.

A minor trickle or drainage stream across boggy ground.

Old Norse 'sík', a ditch.

Syke Head; the many 'sikes' threading the moss.

“Follow the sike up onto the moss.”

sík (ON)

Beck, Moss, Mire

Skiddaw /SKID-aw/

Uncertain — 'mountain with the jutting crag'.

One of the oldest, highest and roundest of the fells, above Keswick.

Old Norse; Whaley suggests 'jutting crag', or a personal name.

Skiddaw and its satellites form the northern skyline.

“Skiddaw is a giant of ancient slate.”

3 Wainwrights named “Skiddaw” Dodd (Skiddaw), Skiddaw, Skiddaw Little Man

Dodd, Ullock Pike

Slab

A broad sheet of tilted, fairly smooth rock.

Bare rock lying at an angle with few edges to hold, so the grip comes from friction under the sole. Wet, greasy or iced, a slab can be much harder than its angle suggests.

Etymology uncertain.

Lakeland slabs stay slick long after rain; Bowfell's Great Slab, beside the Climbers' Traverse, is a well-known one.

“The slab's fine dry, but it'll be like glass after this rain.”

Scramble, Outcrop, Crag, Technical terrain, Grade 1 scramble

Drawn in the diagram: Crag, buttress, rake, slab and scree

Slack /slak/

A shallow hollow between hills.

A gentle depression or dip in higher ground.

Old Norse 'slakki', a hollow.

Witherslack; many 'slacks' on boggy cols.

“Cross the boggy slack to the next rise.”

slakki (ON)

Hause, Moss

Sleet

A mix of rain and snow falling together.

Half-frozen precipitation near the freezing level — cold, wet and chilling.

Old English.

Common on the tops in the shoulder seasons.

“Rain turned to sleet as we climbed.”

Freezing level, Wind chill

Slush

Partly melted, wet snow.

Heavy, saturated snow that's exhausting to walk through and offers poor grip.

Thawing Lakeland snow turns to energy-sapping slush.

“Knee-deep slush slowed us to a crawl.”

Freeze-thaw, Post-holing

Sphagnum /SFAG-num/

The spongy bog moss that builds peat.

A group of mosses that hold many times their own weight in water, in cushions of green, red, orange or pink. Where it grows thickly the ground beneath is usually saturated, and over centuries dead moss becomes peat.

Greek 'sphagnos', a kind of moss.

Bright sphagnum on a Lakeland fellside is a good sign of wet ground underfoot, and it is central to peat restoration in Cumbria, including in Skiddaw Forest.

“Don't step on the bright green patch; that's sphagnum, and it'll be sodden.”

bog moss

Moss, Bog, Mire, Peat hag, Marsh

Spindrift

Blown snow moving across the ground or off ridges.

Loose snow whipped along by the wind, stinging the face and filling tracks.

A feature of windy winter days on the high fells.

“Spindrift streamed off the cornice.”

Cornice, Slush

Spot height

A specific height marked at a point on a map.

A small number giving the exact elevation of a point, even with no summit symbol.

Cartography.

Useful for confirming you're on the right top.

“The spot height confirms 853 m.”

Elevation, Contour line

Spur /spur/

A tongue of high ground running down from a hill.

A projecting ridge that drops from a summit or main ridge towards the valley. On the map its contours bend into a U or V that points downhill, where those of a re-entrant point uphill.

English 'spur', a projecting point, used figuratively.

Many Lakeland ascents simply climb a spur; The Band, running down from Bowfell into Great Langdale, is a well-known one.

“Keep to the crest of the spur and it takes you straight up.”

Re-entrant, Band, Nab, Tongue, Rigg, Ridge, Contour

Spur path

A short branch off the main route.

A side-path, often a there-and-back detour to a viewpoint or summit.

Many ridge walks have spur paths to outlying tops.

“A short spur leads to the viewpoint.”

branch

Dead-end spur, Junction

Squall /skwawl/

A sudden blast of strong wind, often with rain or hail.

A sharp rise in wind that lasts a minute or more, not the second or two of a gust. It usually arrives with a heavy shower or a line of dark cloud, and passes as quickly as it came.

Probably Scandinavian in origin.

On showery days with a westerly wind they come in off the sea, and from a western top you can often watch one coming.

“Here comes a squall; get your hood up.”

Gusts, Storm front, Visibility, Wind chill

Stickle /stik-l/

A steep, sharp peak.

A steep, pointed top.

Old Norse 'stikill' / Old English 'sticol', steep/pointed.

Pike o' Stickle and Harrison Stickle — the Langdale Pikes; Stickle Tarn beneath them.

“The two 'Stickles' give Langdale its skyline.”

2 Wainwrights named “Stickle” Harrison Stickle, Pike of Stickle

stikill (ON)

Pike, Tarn

Stile /stile/

A step or ladder over a wall or fence.

A way through a field boundary on foot; a 'ladder stile' climbs a high wall.

Old English 'stigel'.

Drystone-wall stiles are everywhere in the dales.

“Cross the ladder stile onto the open fell.”

1 Wainwright named “Stile” High Stile

ladder stile

Drystone wall, Kissing gate

Storm front

The leading edge of a storm system.

The boundary where a depression's wind and rain arrive, often abruptly.

Meteorology.

Atlantic fronts hit the western fells first.

“Get down before the front hits.”

front

Weather window, Forecast window

Stove

A portable cooker for hot food and drinks.

A small gas or liquid-fuel burner for brews and meals on longer trips.

A hot drink can transform a cold summit stop.

“Brew up with the stove out of the wind.”

camping stove

Backpacking, Wild camping

Strenuous / Challenging walk

A long, high or complex route needing fitness and experience.

A demanding day — big ascent, rough or exposed terrain, proper navigation.

The classic ridge rounds and higher fells are strenuous days.

“A strenuous round of 18 km and 1,400 m.”

hard walk

Mountaineering, Exposure

Striding Edge

Helvellyn's famous east arête.

A narrow, exposed rock ridge — the most celebrated walkers' scramble in England.

Descriptive English.

Combined with Swirral Edge for a classic Helvellyn round from Glenridding.

“Striding Edge is the Lakes' rite of passage.”

Swirral Edge, Red Tarn

Sty /stie/

A steep path or ascent.

A steep climbing path.

Old Norse 'stigr', a path/ascent.

Styhead (Sty Head) Pass; Rossett... the 'sty' element marks steep ways.

“Sty Head is the old pass between Borrowdale and Wasdale.”

stigr (ON)

Hause, Pass, Rake

Sty Head /STIE-hed/

The high pass between Wasdale and Borrowdale.

A broad col below Great Gable, with Styhead Tarn beside it, where old paths from Wasdale, Borrowdale, Eskdale and Langdale meet.

Old Norse 'stígr', a path, + head: the top of the steep way.

The crossroads for Great Gable, the Corridor Route to Scafell Pike and the climb to Esk Hause; the mountain rescue stretcher box by the tarn is a useful landmark in cloud.

“Meet at the stretcher box on Sty Head.”

Styhead, Styhead Pass, Sty Head Pass

Sty, Hause, Pass, Great Gable, Corridor Route, Scafell Pike

Sucker hole

A tempting patch of blue sky in bad weather.

A brief, deceptive clearing that lures you out before the weather closes back in.

Weather slang.

Lakeland skies are full of sucker holes.

“Don't trust that sucker hole — the front's still coming.”

Weather window, Clag / Hill fog

Summit

The highest point of a hill or mountain.

The top — the goal of most ascents, often marked by a cairn or trig point.

Latin 'summus'.

Each Wainwright has its summit; 'bagging' means reaching them.

“We reached the summit in cloud.”

Blencathra, Great Dodd, Hartsop Dodd, Knott, Meal Fell, Stybarrow Dodd, The Nab

top

Cairn, Trig point, Bagging

Drawn in the diagram: Ridge, spur, re-entrant and valley

Drawn in the diagram: Col, hause and pass

Drawn in the diagram: Corrie, arête and tarn

Survival bag / Bivi bag

An emergency shelter bag.

A heavy-duty bag to retain warmth if stuck or injured; a bivi bag is a breathable version for planned nights.

A genuine life-saver in a Lakeland emergency.

“A survival bag weighs little and can save a life.”

bivvy bag

Group shelter, The ten essentials

Swarth /swarth/

Black or dark.

A descriptive element meaning black.

Old Norse 'svartr', black.

Swarth Fell, Swarthmoor.

“Swarth Fell broods above Mardale.”

svartr (ON)

Blea, Black Combe

Swirral Edge

Helvellyn's shorter ridge, towards Catstye Cam.

A rocky ridge dropping north-east from Helvellyn's summit to the col below Catstye Cam, forming the northern wall of Red Tarn's hollow.

Etymology uncertain.

The usual way down after Striding Edge on the Glenridding round; an exposed grade 1 scramble, steepest at the top, and in snow and ice it is mountaineering ground needing an axe and crampons.

“We came down Swirral Edge and dropped to Red Tarn.”

Striding Edge, Helvellyn, Edge, Grade 1 scramble, Cam / Kam

Switchback / Zigzag

A path that turns back on itself to climb gently.

Sharp bends that ease a steep climb by lengthening it — kinder on legs and fellside.

Pitched zigzags climb many honeypot fells.

“Zigzags ease the pull to the summit.”

hairpin, zig-zag

Pitched path, Gradient

Tarn /tarn/

A small mountain lake.

A small upland lake, often glacier-scooped in a corrie.

Old Norse 'tjörn', a small lake.

Red Tarn under Helvellyn, Stickle Tarn, Sprinkling Tarn, Tarn Hows.

“Red Tarn sits in Helvellyn's eastern cove.”

2 Wainwrights named “Tarn” Tarn Crag (Easedale), Tarn Crag (Sleddale)

Angletarn Pikes

tjörn (ON)

Cove, Mere, Dub

Drawn in the diagram: Corrie, arête and tarn

Technical terrain

Ground where footwork and route-finding are complex.

Rocky, steep or pathless ground that needs careful movement, sometimes hands.

The edges cross technical terrain.

“Technical terrain — watch your footing.”

Scramble, Exposure

Temperature inversion

Valley cloud trapped below sunlit summits.

When cold air pools in the valleys under warmer air, the tops break free above a 'cloud sea' — the fell-walker's holy grail.

Meteorology.

Most common on still, clear autumn and winter mornings.

“We climbed out of the fog into an inversion — a sea of cloud below.”

cloud inversion, cloud sea, inversion

Brocken spectre, Cloud base

Terrace

A level shelf running along a slope.

A flat or gently sloping ledge that runs across a hillside or crag, often carrying a path that keeps its height instead of climbing. On a crag it may be a grass ledge between bands of rock.

French 'terrasse', from Latin 'terra', earth.

Loughrigg Terrace, above Grasmere, is named for one; the path round Gowbarrow's southern flank above Ullswater is another.

“Take the terrace round, it saves going over the top.”

Traverse, Contour, Ramp, Rake, Trail / Path

The 214

The full set of Wainwright fells.

Shorthand for completing every fell in the Pictorial Guides.

From Wainwright's seven guides.

The benchmark 'Lakeland round'.

“He's done the 214 twice.”

Wainwrights

Compleat, tick list

The going

The quality of the ground underfoot.

How easy or hard the terrain is to walk on — firm, boggy, rocky, tussocky.

English dialect.

"Good going" on a grassy ridge; "rough going" across the moss.

“The going underfoot is boggy after rain.”

underfoot

Bog-trot, Moss

The ten essentials

The standard mountain safety kit list.

A checklist — map, compass, waterproofs, warm layers, food, water, head torch, first aid, whistle, emergency shelter — carried on every hill day.

Mountaineering safety tradition.

The baseline kit Mountain Rescue wishes everyone carried.

“All ten essentials in the pack before we set off.”

Survival bag, Head torch

The three norths

True, grid and magnetic north.

Maps point to grid north, compasses to magnetic north, and the pole is true north; the small angle between them is 'variation'.

Geomagnetism.

In 2026 magnetic and grid north are very close in the UK — but always check.

“Adjust for the grid-magnetic angle.”

variation, declination

Bearing, Compass

Thru-hike

A long-distance trail walked end-to-end.

Completing a whole long-distance path in one continuous trip.

US usage.

Wainwright's Coast to Coast is the classic UK thru-hike crossing the Lakes.

“She thru-hiked the Coast to Coast in a fortnight.”

end-to-end

Coast to Coast, Backpacking

Thwaite /thwait/

A clearing or assart in woodland.

A patch of ground cleared from forest for farming — one of the most Cumbrian of all elements.

Old Norse 'þveit', a clearing/parcel of land.

Rosthwaite, Seathwaite, Applethwaite, Bassenthwaite, Stonethwaite.

“Rosthwaite means 'the clearing with the heap of stones'.”

Rosthwaite Fell, Seathwaite Fell, Thornthwaite Crag

þveit (ON), tveit (Norw.)

Garth, Scale, Seat

Tick list

Your personal record of summits done.

The list (paper or app) on which baggers tick off completed fells.

Bagging culture.

Apps now log your Wainwrights automatically.

“Three left on the tick list.”

logbook

Bagging, Compleat

Tick-off feature

A feature you pass that confirms you're on course.

Something recognisable on your line, such as a wall corner, a stream crossing or a path junction, that you expect to meet in order. Missing one is an early sign that something is wrong.

Navigation term.

On the lower Lakeland fells, walls, sheepfolds and becks make good tick-off features even when the tops are in cloud.

“Sheepfold, then the beck, then the wall corner: all ticked off.”

tick feature

Handrail, Catching feature, Attack point, Pacing, Checkpoint

Tongue /tung/

A tongue of high ground between two becks.

A wedge of higher land dividing two streams or valleys.

Old English/Old Norse 'tunge', a tongue of land.

Glencoyne Tongue, Mickleden's 'The Tongue', countless others.

“Climb the tongue between the two gills.”

1 Wainwright named “Tongue” Troutbeck Tongue

Spur, Rigg

Topo map

A topographical map showing relief.

Any map showing the shape of the land with contours — OS maps are topo maps.

From 'topographic'.

The contour detail is what makes a map navigable on the fells.

“A good topo map shows every re-entrant.”

topographic map

Contour line, OS Explorer

Track

A rough road or wide path.

A vehicle-width unsurfaced way, often for farm or forestry use, good for fast walking.

Forestry and quarry tracks access many valleys.

“A stony track climbs to the quarry.”

forest road

Byway, Bridleway

Track log

A recorded trace of where you walked.

The breadcrumb trail your GPS records — used to log a walk or prove a route.

Recording a track log turns a planned route into a verified one.

“My track log shows the exact line.”

tracklog

GPX file, GPS

Trail / Path

Any track or footway used for walking.

The general word for a route on the ground, from broad track to faint trod.

hikes.guide routes follow everything from pitched paths to pathless fell.

“Follow the trail to the col.”

way

Footpath, Track, Trod

Trail run

Running on paths and tracks.

Running off-road but on defined trails — gentler than fell running's open ground.

Valley and forest trails suit trail running.

“An easy lakeshore trail run.”

Fell running

Trailhead

The official start point of a route.

Where a walk begins — usually the car park, with signage and the first path.

US usage.

Most Lakeland walks start from a valley car park.

“Park at the trailhead and follow the signs.”

start, trailhead car park

Approach, Junction

Traverse

Crossing terrain horizontally; or crossing a peak.

To cut across a slope rather than climb it; also to cross a summit, up one side and down the other.

French.

A traverse of Helvellyn takes Striding Edge up, Swirral Edge down.

“Traverse the fellside to the col.”

Ridge, Edge

Trekking poles / Hiking poles

Adjustable poles for balance and to spare the knees.

Two poles that aid balance on rough ground and cut the load on knees, especially descending.

A boon on steep, loose Lakeland descents.

“Poles save your knees on the drop.”

walking poles

Descent, Gaiters

Trig bagging

Visiting trig points as a collection.

Seeking out Ordnance Survey triangulation pillars for their own sake.

Hill-walking sub-hobby.

Combines neatly with Wainwright-bagging on summit days.

“He bags the trig as well as the top.”

Trig point, bagging

Trig point /trig/

A concrete survey pillar.

A triangulation pillar built by Ordnance Survey, often on a summit; a 'bagging' target in its own right.

Short for triangulation; OS, 1930s on.

Many Lakeland summits carry the familiar white pillar.

“Touch the trig and you've topped out.”

triangulation pillar

Summit, bagging

Trod /trod/

A faint path worn by sheep or walkers.

An unofficial narrow path across the fell.

Northern dialect, from 'tread'.

'Sheep trods' contour many a fellside.

“Follow the trod along the contour.”

sheep trod, desire line, sheep track

Path, Cairn

True north

The direction of the geographic North Pole.

The 'real' north used by GPS and longitude, distinct from grid and magnetic north.

Geography.

Rarely used directly on the hill, but part of the picture.

“True north differs slightly from grid north.”

geographic north

The three norths, Magnetic north

Turn-back time

The latest time to turn round for a safe return.

A pre-set deadline that means heading back regardless of how close the summit is.

Vital with short winter daylight.

“Our turn-back time is 1 pm, summit or not.”

turnaround time

Checkpoint, Escape route

Type 1 fun

Enjoyable in the moment and afterwards.

Straightforwardly fun — a sunny ridge walk with big views and easy going.

Outdoor slang.

A blue-sky day on a horseshoe is pure Type 1.

“Sun, views, easy going — proper Type 1 fun.”

Type 2 fun

Type 2 fun

Miserable at the time, satisfying in hindsight.

The grim-but-rewarding day you're oddly proud of later.

Outdoor slang.

A Lakeland deluge becomes a great story afterwards.

“Soaked and battered — classic Type 2 fun.”

Type 1 fun, Clag / Hill fog

U-shaped valley

A steep-sided, flat-floored valley deepened by ice.

Glaciers widened and deepened valleys that rivers had cut, leaving steep walls, a broad floor and often hanging valleys high on the sides. Real valleys are rarely a clean U all the way along.

Geography term, from the valley's cross-section.

Great Langdale is a commonly cited Lakeland example, though it alternates between broad, flat basins and narrower sections.

“Flat floor, steep sides: the ice did that.”

glacial trough

Hanging valley, Valley, Dale, Corrie / Cirque / Cwm, Erratic

Vale /vayl/

A broad, gentle valley.

An older, softer word for a valley, used mostly in the names of wide, open ones rather than steep upland dales.

Old French 'val', from Latin 'vallis', a valley.

St John's in the Vale, between Threlkeld and Thirlmere, and the Vale of Lorton, north of Crummock Water.

“We came back down St John's in the Vale under Castle Rock.”

Dale, Valley, Hope, Comb / Coombe

Valley

Low ground between hills, often with a river.

The dale floor — where farms, lakes and roads sit beneath the fells.

The Lakeland word is 'dale'; the radial valleys give the Lakes their spoked shape.

“The valley opens towards the lake.”

Bannerdale Crags, Clough Head, Dale Head, Glenridding Dodd, Grisedale Pike, Hartsop Above How, Hartsop Dodd, High Hartsop Dodd, Hopegill Head, Mardale Ill Bell, Mungrisdale Common, Rannerdale Knotts, Wandope

dale, glen

Dale, Dell, Hanging valley

Drawn in the diagram: Ridge, spur, re-entrant and valley

Drawn in the diagram: Col, hause and pass

Verglas /VAIR-glah/

A thin, clear glaze of ice on rock.

Rain or meltwater freezing onto cold rock or stone as a transparent film, so the surface looks merely wet. It is very slippery and often too thin for crampons to bite well.

French 'verglas', from 'verre', glass, and an old word for ice.

Found in the Lakes on cold mornings after rain or a thaw, on pitched paths, slabs and rock steps, and easy to miss until you are standing on it.

“The rock looked wet. It was verglas.”

glaze ice, black ice

Freeze-thaw, Freezing level, Pitched path, Microspikes, Crampon rating (C1–C3)

Visibility

How far you can see clearly.

The biggest single factor in whether navigation is easy or fraught.

In Lakeland clag, visibility can drop to a few metres.

“Visibility fell to 20 m on the plateau.”

viz

Clag / Hill fog, White-out

Wainwright /WAYN-rite/

One of the 214 fells in Wainwright's guides.

A fell described in A. Wainwright's seven Pictorial Guides to the Lakeland Fells (1955–66); 'bagging the Wainwrights' is the Lakes' great challenge.

Named for Alfred Wainwright (1907–91).

All 214 lie within the Lake District; he chose them by eye, generally tops over 1,000 ft with ~50 ft of prominence.

“That's her 200th Wainwright.”

the 214

Outlying Fells, Birkett

Wainwright Outlying Fells

The 116 lower fells of his 1974 supplement.

The summits in 'The Outlying Fells of Lakeland' (1974), described in 56 walks — gentler, quieter hills round the edges.

Wainwright, 1974.

A popular 'what next' after the 214.

“After the 214, she started the Outlying Fells.”

the Outlyers, Outlying Fells

Wainwright, Birkett

Water /waw-ter/

A lake.

The everyday word for several of the larger lakes.

Old English 'wæter'.

Derwentwater, Coniston Water, Crummock Water, Wast Water.

“Wast Water is England's deepest at 74 m.”

wæter (OE)

Mere, Tarn

Water filter

A device to make stream water safer to drink.

Filters or purifies beck and tarn water on long or multi-day trips.

Lakeland becks are often clean high up, but a filter removes the risk.

“Filter the beck water before drinking.”

purifier

Beck, Backpacking

Waterproofs

Jacket and trousers that keep out rain.

The full set — top and bottoms — essential given how wet the Lakes are.

Always in the pack, whatever the forecast.

“Pack full waterproofs — this is the Lake District.”

Hardshell / softshell, Shell / Outer layer

Wath /wath/

A river ford.

A crossing point where you can wade a river.

Old Norse 'vað', a ford.

Wath Brow; old 'waths' on the becks before bridges.

“The old wath is impassable in spate.”

vað (ON), ford

Beck

Waymarked trail

A route marked with posts or symbols.

A signed path you can follow without a map — common in forests and on long-distance trails.

Forest trails at Whinlatter and Grizedale are waymarked; the open fells are not.

“Follow the blue waymarkers.”

marked trail

Blazing, Cairn line

Waypoint

A key point or coordinate used in navigation.

A named location along a route, often loaded into a GPS to follow a line.

hikes.guide route maps mark key waypoints.

“Set the col as your next waypoint.”

nav point

GPS, GPX file, Junction

Weather window

A short spell of good conditions between fronts.

A gap of fair weather you plan a route around.

Lakeland walking is often about catching the window between fronts.

“We grabbed a four-hour weather window.”

Forecast window, Storm front

what3words

An app that names every 3 m square with three words.

A commercial location system that divides the world into 3 m squares and gives each a fixed three-word address. It pinpoints a spot but gives no height, no direction and no route off the hill.

Brand name.

Mountain Rescue England and Wales accepts it, but prefers an accurate 6- or 8-figure grid reference with its two-letter prefix and a description of where you are, and warns that phones run flat.

“Give them the grid reference and say where we are; the three words are a check.”

w3w

Grid reference, GPS, Emergency contact

White-out

Total loss of visibility and horizon.

In thick cloud or blowing snow, ground and sky merge and all sense of slope vanishes — dangerous on corniced edges.

Meteorology.

A serious winter hazard on the high plateaux.

“In the white-out we navigated purely on bearing and pacing.”

whiteout

Cornice, Bearing

Wild camping

Camping away from sites, high on the fells.

Pitching a small tent for a night on open mountain; tolerated (not a legal right) high in the Lakes if done discreetly.

English.

High tarns like Sprinkling and Angle are classic spots.

“We wild-camped by the tarn for the sunrise.”

backpacking, bivvy

Leave No Trace, Tarn

Wind chill

The extra cooling effect of wind on skin.

Moving air strips body heat far faster than still air; a moderate wind can make a cold summit feel dangerously colder.

Meteorology.

A leading cause of exposure on exposed ridges.

“Light breeze, but the wind chill made it feel sub-zero.”

apparent temperature

Exposure, Lapse rate

Wind slab

A layer of snow packed together by the wind.

Snow blown off the windward side of a ridge and laid down on the sheltered side as a firm layer that may not be well bonded to the snow beneath. This entry says what the word means; judging snow on the hill is taught on winter skills courses.

English, mountaineering.

Builds up on lee slopes, in the tops of gullies and in the coves below the ridges after snow and wind.

“All that snow blew off the ridge; there'll be wind slab on the lee side.”

windslab

Cornice, Spindrift, Leeward / Lee, Windward, Aspect, Self-arrest

Windward

The side facing into the wind.

The side of a hill, ridge or wall that the wind blows onto. It takes the full force of the wind and, where moist air is pushed up it, most of the rain.

English 'wind' and '-ward', towards.

With the prevailing winds from the west, the western fells are on the windward side, which is where the rain falls; see Rain shadow.

“The windward side's taking a battering; it's calm in the lee.”

Leeward / Lee, Rain shadow, Orographic rainfall, Föhn, Gusts

Woodland

A smaller, often mixed area of trees.

Tree cover, usually more natural than commercial forest — the Lakes' native oak and birch woods.

Borrowdale's Atlantic oakwoods are a temperate rainforest.

“Ancient woodland clings to the valley sides.”

copse

Forest, Birk

Zero day / Rest day

A day off walking to recover on a long trip.

A rest day mid-expedition — 'zero' because you cover zero trail miles.

Long-distance slang.

Useful on a multi-day Coast to Coast through the Lakes.

“We took a zero day in Grasmere.”

rest day

Thru-hike, Backpacking