Where is place fell?

If you're visiting the area around beautiful Ullswater, then you probably have some walking on your agenda! There are lots of lovely low-level walks to enjoy, such as spectacular Aira Force and high mountain treks such as Helvellyn. However, if you're looking for something in between, here's our guide to the 'easy' way up Place Fell. It's an enjoyable walk that will reward you with spectacular Lake District views!

When you look at Place Fell, you’ll doubt that there is an ‘easy’ way up there, but all of these things are relative! On this occasion, by ‘easy’ we mean that there’s a gradual incline along a well-marked path. It is easy to follow, though steep in places.

Talking of starting points, park up near Patterdale School: there’s a Pay and Display car park just along the road. Follow the big broad track along to Side Farm where you’ll find a café, a great place to stop for a snack or a warm drink before setting off! Bear left along the track behind the café and you're on your way.

After a few hundred yards, look for a trail doubling back on your right and head up there: this may be a tiny track that seems somewhat insignificant, but it’s the route that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge walked along when they visited Cumbria in June 2019. Just keep following it all the way up to Boredale Hause, it’s a nice steady climb with plenty of stunning views to admire.

From there, bear left along the challenging but easy-to-follow track all the way to the summit of Place Fell, where you can sit back for a well-earned rest and admire the superb views over Ullswater and the surrounding fells, including Helvellyn. From up here, you also have a good chance of seeing buzzards circling high overhead or even the odd skylark on clear, still days. If you're really lucky, you might even spot some of the red deer that have been roaming these valleys for hundreds of years!

You can turn back here and return the way you came but, if you fancy a bit of an adventure, then keep going up and over the summit and down the other side to join the Ullswater Way, which takes you all the way back to Side Farm where you can enjoy a huge slab of delicious cake.

Once you’re recovered and full of cake, pay a visit to Glenridding where you will find plenty of places for more food and drink. You might like to hop on one of the wonderful Ullswater Steamers and take a gentle cruise around the lake. There's even a bar on board if you fancy a tipple!

Please be aware: although we’re describing these routes as ‘easy’ you’ll still need to be properly prepared for the high fells: Place Fell is well placed (!) for wonderful panoramic views, but that means there is also a good chance of strong winds and drastically changing weather conditions. Proper boots, warm and waterproof clothing, food, torch (just in case) and a map and compass (or other properly reliable navigation aid) are a must. This is not the time to dig out your favourite party frock and matching Manolos.

We have lots of wonderful self-catering holiday cottages around Ullswater. Take a look at our Ullswater cottages or use our cottage search for all of our Lake District cottages.

Place Fell is a hill in the English Lake District . It stands at the corner of the upper and middle reaches of Ullswater, with steep western flanks overlooking the villages of Glenridding and Patterdale .

A fell (from Old Norse fell, fjall, "mountain"[1]) is a high and barren landscape feature, such as a mountain or moor-covered hill. The term is most often employed in Fennoscandia, Iceland, the Isle of Man, parts of northern England, and Scotland.

The English word "fell" comes from Old Norse fell and fjall (both forms existed).[1] It is cognate with Danish fjeld, Faroese fjall and fjøll, Icelandic fjall and fell, Norwegian fjell with dialects fjøll, fjødd, fjedd, fjedl, fjill, fil(l), and fel,[2] and Swedish fjäll, all referring to mountains rising above the alpine tree line.[3]

In northern England, especially in the Lake District and in the Pennine Dales, the word "fell" originally referred to an area of uncultivated high ground used as common grazing usually on common land and above the timberline. Today, generally, "fell" refers to the mountains and hills of the Lake District and the Pennine Dales.

Names that originally referred to grazing areas have been applied to these hilltops. This is the case with Seathwaite Fell, for example, which would be the common grazing land used by the farmers of Seathwaite. The fellgate marks the road from a settlement onto the fell (see photograph for example), as is the case with the Seathwaite Fell. In other cases the reverse is true; for instance, the name of Wetherlam, in the Coniston Fells, though understood to refer to the mountain as a whole, strictly speaking refers to the summit; the slopes have names such as Tilberthwaite High Fell, Low Fell and Above Beck Fells.

The word "fell" is also used in the names of various breeds of livestock, bred for life on the uplands, such as Rough Fell sheep, Fell terriers and Fell ponies.

It is also found in many place names across the north of England, often attached to the name of a community; thus the township of Cartmel Fell.

In northern England, there is a Lord of the Fells – this ancient aristocratic title being associated with the Lords of Bowland.

Groups of cairns are a common feature on many fells, often marking the summit – there are fine examples on Wild Boar Fell in Mallerstang Dale, Cumbria, and on Nine Standards Rigg just outside Kirkby Stephen, Cumbria.

As the most mountainous region of England, the Lake District is the area most closely associated with the sport of fell running, which takes its name from the fells of the district. "Fellwalking" is also the term used locally for the activity known in the rest of Great Britain as hillwalking.

The word "fell" also enjoys limited use in Scotland; with, for example, the Campsie Fells in central Scotland, to the north-east of Glasgow. One of the most famous examples of the use of the word "fell" in Scotland is Goat Fell, the highest point on the Isle of Arran. Criffel and the nearby Long Fell in Galloway may be seen from the northern Lake District of England. Peel Fell in the Kielder Forest is on the border between the Scottish Borders to the north and the English county of Northumberland to the south.

In Norway, fjell, in common usage, is generally interpreted as simply a summit or area of greater altitude than a hill, which leads to a great deal of local variation in what is defined as a fjell. Fjell is mostly used about areas above the forest line. Distinct summits can be referred to as et fjell (a mountain). High plateaus (vidde landscape) such as Hardangervidda are also regarded as fjell.[4][5] Professor of geography at the University of Bergen, Anders Lundeberg, has summed up the problem by stating, "There simply is no fixed and unambiguous definition of fjell."[6] Ivar Aasen defined fjell as a "tall berg", primarily referring to a berg that reaches an altitude where trees don't grow, lower berg are referred to as "berg", ås (hill, ridge) or hei (moor, heathland). The fixed expression til fjells refers to mountains (or uplands) as a collective rather than a specific location or specific summit (the "s" in til fjells is an old genitive form remaining only in fixed expressions). According to Ivar Aasen, berg refers to cliffs, bedrock and notable elevations of the surface underpinned by bedrock; berg also refers to the substance of bedrock.[7][8] For all practical purposes, fjell can be translated as "mountain" and the Norwegian language has no other commonly used word for mountain.[citation needed]

In Sweden, fjäll generally refers to any mountain or upland high enough that forest will not naturally survive at the top, in effect a mountain tundra. Fjäll is primarily used to describe mountains in the Nordic countries, but also more generally to describe mountains shaped by massive ice sheets, primarily in Arctic and subarctic regions. There are however dialectal differences in usage, with comparatively low mountains or plateaus, sometimes tree-covered, in Bohuslän and Västergötland (e.g. Safjällets nationalpark [sv] and Kynnefjäll [sv]) being referred to as "fjäll", similar to how the word is used in Norwegian[citation needed]

In Finnish, the mountains characteristic of the region of Lapland are called tunturi (plural: tunturit), i.e. "fell". A tunturi is a hill high enough that its top is above the tree line and has alpine tundra. In Finnish, the geographical term vuori is used for mountains recently uplifted and with jagged terrain featuring permanent glaciers, while tunturi refers to the old, highly eroded, gently shaped terrain without glaciers, as found in Finland.[9] They are round inselbergs rising from the otherwise flat surroundings. The tree line can be at a rather low altitude, such as 600 m in Enontekiö, owing to the high latitude. The fells in Finnish Lapland form vestiges of the Karelides mountains, formed two billion years ago. The term tunturi is also generally used to refer to treeless plains at high altitudes in far north regions. The term tunturi, originally a word limited to far-Northern dialects of Finnish and Karelian, is a loan from Sami, compare Proto-Sami *tuontër, South Sami doedtere, Northern Sami duottar, Inari Sami tuodâr "uplands, mountains, tundra", Kildin Sami tūndâr, which means "uplands, treeless mountain tract" and is cognate with Finnish tanner "hard ground".[10] From this Sami word, the word "tundra" is borrowed, as well, through the Russian language.[11][12] Hills that are over 50 m high, but do not reach the tree line are referred to as vaara, while the general term for hills including hills of 50 m or less is mäki.[13] In place names, however, tunturi, vaara and vuori are used inconsistently, e.g. Rukatunturi is technically a vaara, as it lacks alpine tundra.[citation needed]

The term förfjäll (literally "fore-fell") is used in Sweden and Finland[14] to denote mountainous zones lower and less dissected than the fell proper. However, its more pronounced relief, its often higher amount of plateaux, and its coherent valley systems distinguishes the förfjäll also from the undulating hilly terrain (bergkullsterräng) and the plains with residual hills (bergkullslätt). Generally, the förfjäll do not surpass 1000 m ASL. As a geomorphic unit, the förfjäll extends across Sweden as a 650 km-long and 40 km to 80 km-broad belt from Dalarna in the south to Norrbotten in the north.[15]

The Patterdale Hotel, The White Lion Inn,  Patterdale Village Store and Post Office and the Patterdale YHA all near the start of this walk.

Hazards

Remember that we cannot outline every single hazard on a walk – it’s up to you to be safe and competent. Read up on Mountain Safety , Navigation and what equipment you’ll need.

Parking : CA11 0NN