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47-589: The Old Man of Coniston is a fell in the Furness Fells of the Lake District in Cumbria , England, and is the highest point (county top) of the historic county of Lancashire . It is at least 2,632.62 feet (802.42 m) high, and lies to the west of the village of Coniston and the lake, Coniston Water . The fell is sometimes known by the alternative name of Coniston Old Man , or simply The Old Man . The mountain

94-638: A pyramidal peak is created. In some cases, this peak will be made accessible by one or more arêtes. The Matterhorn in the European Alps is an example of such a peak. Where cirques form one behind the other, a cirque stairway results, as at the Zastler Loch in the Black Forest . As glaciers can only originate above the snowline, studying the location of present-day cirques provides information on past glaciation patterns and on climate change. Although

141-632: 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. For all practical purposes, fjell can be translated as "mountain" and the Norwegian language has no other commonly used word for mountain. In Sweden, fjäll generally refers to any mountain or upland high enough that forest will not naturally survive at

188-572: 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

235-501: A depth of about 50 ft (15 m) and contains trout and char . Enclosed by high ground, it has an outlet to the south through a field of boulders. This is one of the headwaters of Torver Beck, which passes a disused quarry near the Tranearth climbing hut, keeping the workings topped up via an artificial but picturesque waterfall. The stream finally issues into Coniston Water south of Torver village. The southern and eastern flanks of

282-455: A discernible rib falls due east via Stubthwaite Crag and Crowberry Haws. Below the tourist route path, this rib climbs again to The Bell, a fine rocky top (1,099 ft (335 m)) with excellent views of the lake and village. Nestling beneath the northern face of the Old Man, and cradled between it and Raven's Tor, is Low Water. This corrie tarn has been dammed in the past to provide water for

329-577: A larger leeward deposition zone, furthering the process of glaciation. Debris (or till) in the ice also may abrade the bed surface; should ice move down a slope it would have a 'sandpaper effect' on the bedrock beneath, on which it scrapes. Eventually, the hollow may become a large bowl shape in the side of the mountain, with the headwall being weathered by ice segregation, and as well as being eroded by plucking . The basin will become deeper as it continues to be eroded by ice segregation and abrasion. Should ice segregation, plucking and abrasion continue,

376-487: A less common usage, the term cirque is also used for amphitheatre-shaped, fluvial-erosion features. For example, an approximately 200 square kilometres (77 sq mi) anticlinal erosion cirque is at 30°35′N 34°45′E  /  30.583°N 34.750°E  / 30.583; 34.750  ( Negev anticlinal erosion cirque ) on the southern boundary of the Negev highlands . This erosional cirque or makhtesh

423-412: A mountainside near the firn line , they are typically partially surrounded on three sides by steep cliffs . The highest cliff is often called a headwall . The fourth side forms the lip , threshold or sill , the side at which the glacier flowed away from the cirque. Many glacial cirques contain tarns dammed by either till (debris) or a bedrock threshold. When enough snow accumulates, it can flow out

470-403: 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

517-468: 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". From this Sami word, the word " tundra " is borrowed, as well, through

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564-665: 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). 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 , and Swedish fjäll , all referring to mountains rising above

611-411: Is a metalled road, maintained partly to provide access to the quarry. This leads to a car park at an altitude of 740 ft (230 m), a popular starting point for climbs. Beyond here motor vehicles are prohibited, but the track continues to its summit at 2,000 ft (610 m), crossing the ridge to the south of Dow Crag. Coniston Old Man has no connecting ridges other than that to Brim Fell, but

658-440: Is formed by intermittent river flow cutting through layers of limestone and chalk leaving sheer cliffs. A common feature for all fluvial -erosion cirques is a terrain which includes erosion resistant upper structures overlying materials which are more easily eroded. Glacial cirques are found amongst mountain ranges throughout the world; 'classic' cirques are typically about one kilometer long and one kilometer wide. Situated high on

705-479: Is most often overdeepened below the level of the cirque's low-side outlet (stage) and its down-slope (backstage) valley. If the cirque is subject to seasonal melting, the floor of the cirque most often forms a tarn (small lake) behind a dam, which marks the downstream limit of the glacial overdeepening. The dam itself can be composed of moraine , glacial till , or a lip of the underlying bedrock . The fluvial cirque or makhtesh , found in karst landscapes,

752-436: Is popular with tourists and fell-walkers with a number of well-marked paths to the summit. The mountain has also seen extensive copper and slate mining activity for eight hundred years, and the remains of abandoned mines and spoil tips are a significant feature of the north-east slopes. A detailed survey on 24 May 2018 measured the height of the highest visible natural ground to be 802.42 m (2,632.6 ft). The height of

799-515: 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

846-579: The Russian language . 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 . In place names, however, tunturi , vaara and vuori are used inconsistently, e.g. Rukatunturi is technically a vaara , as it lacks alpine tundra. The term förfjäll (literally "fore-fell") is used in Sweden and Finland to denote mountainous zones lower and less dissected than

893-493: The University of Bergen , Anders Lundeberg, has summed up the problem by stating, "There simply is no fixed and unambiguous definition of fjell ." Ivar Aasen defined fjell as a "tall berg ", primarily referring to a berg that reaches an altitude where trees do not 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

940-628: The alpine tree line . 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

987-647: The dacitic lapilli - tuffs of the Lag Bank Formation crosses the summit. The southern slopes show the volcaniclastic sandstones of the Seathwaite Fell Formation, while the rhyolitic tuffs of the Paddy End Member stretch from north of the summit toward the Coppermines. The Aetherius Society considers it to be one of its 19 holy mountains . The Old Man of Coniston is the inspiration for

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1034-571: The Coniston Old Man itself, slate replaced copper, and over several hundred years, the Old Man slate quarries and mines became some of the largest in England. The Old Man slate quarries were believed to have started in the 12th and 13th centuries, although there is little evidence on site of this. By the 1500s the quarries, working a kind of volcanic slate silver-grey in colour, were well established. The earliest major working shortly after this period

1081-524: The Lakeland Fells took only the northern half of the range as Lakeland proper, consigning the lower hills southward to a supplementary work The Outlying Fells of Lakeland . Later guidebook writers have chosen to include the whole range in their main volumes. The central part of the Coniston range can be likened to an inverted 'Y', with Brim Fell at the connecting point of the three arms. The main spine of

1128-525: The Old Man are composed of rough ground, deeply pockmarked by slate quarries. One of these quarries, Bursting Stone, is still operating and produces an olive-green slate. Across the southern slopes runs the Walna Scar Road. This was the original trade route between Coniston village and the settlements of the Duddon Valley, and is a public restricted byway . The first section rising steeply from Coniston

1175-662: The Old Man the highest point in the Furness Fells, and the 12th most prominent mountain in England. The Coniston (or Furness) Fells form the watershed between Coniston Water in the east and the Duddon valley to the west. The range begins in the north at Wrynose Pass and runs south for around 10 miles (16 km) before petering out at Broughton in Furness on the Duddon Estuary. Alfred Wainwright in his influential Pictorial Guide to

1222-527: The Walna Scar Road. The car park at the top of the metalled section provides a headstart for these routes. The Walna Scar Road can also be reached from Torver, or from Seathwaite in the Duddon Valley, although the latter results in an indirect climb via Dow Crag. Coniston copper mines are reputed to be some of the largest copper mines in Britain, with a vertical distance of around 2,000 ft (610 m). On

1269-451: The bergschrund changes very little, however, studies have shown that ice segregation (frost shattering) may happen with only small changes in temperature. Water that flows into the bergschrund can be cooled to freezing temperatures by the surrounding ice, allowing freeze-thaw free mechanisms to occur. If two adjacent cirques erode toward one another, an arête , or steep sided ridge, forms. When three or more cirques erode toward one another,

1316-406: The dimensions of the cirque will increase, but the proportion of the landform would remain roughly the same. A bergschrund forms when the movement of the glacier separates the moving ice from the stationary ice, forming a crevasse. The method of erosion of the headwall lying between the surface of the glacier and the cirque's floor has been attributed to freeze-thaw mechanisms. The temperature within

1363-462: 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

1410-409: The ground on the summit plinth (man-made ground) is 803.53 m (2,636.3 ft). The same survey also measured the height of nearby Swirl How , and measured it to be also 802.42 m (2,632.6 ft). The measurements were reported with a measurement uncertainty of plus or minus 0.05 metres (2 inches) The surveyors state: "If one considers the area covered by the plinth on Coniston Old Man and

1457-519: 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

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1504-616: 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

1551-471: The observation that the highest rock is probably covered by it then we believe the evidence strongly suggests there is higher ground beneath it and that, therefore, Coniston Old Man should retain its current status" [as being the highest of the Furness Fells and the county top of historic Lancashire]. As of 2020, Ordnance Survey maps show the Old Man of Coniston with a height of 803 m (2,635 ft), and Swirl How at 802 m (2,631 ft), which makes

1598-715: The old, highly eroded, gently shaped terrain without glaciers, as found in Finland. 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

1645-524: The opening of the bowl and form valley glaciers which may be several kilometers long. Cirques form in conditions which are favorable; in the Northern Hemisphere the conditions include the north-east slope, where they are protected from the majority of the Sun's energy and from the prevailing winds. These areas are sheltered from heat, encouraging the accumulation of snow; if the accumulation of snow increases,

1692-477: The quarries, but all of its water now issues via a cascade of falls into the Coppermines Valley. This area, shared with the neighbouring fells of Brim Fell and Wetherlam , is heavily scarred by historic copper , nickel and cobalt mining, particularly in the latter half of the 19th century. The summit of the fell carries a unique construction, a combined slate platform and cairn . The extensive view from

1739-459: The ridge runs north over Swirl How and Great Carrs , and south-west to Dow Crag and the lower hills beyond. The third arm is a truncated spur , running only half a mile to the summit of the Old Man before tumbling away south-eastward to the valley floor. This ridge-end position gives the fell a sense of isolation and increased stature, with steep faces on three sides. To the west is the deep trench containing Goat's Water. This elongated tarn has

1786-472: The snow turns into glacial ice. The process of nivation follows, whereby a hollow in a slope may be enlarged by ice segregation weathering and glacial erosion. Ice segregation erodes the vertical rock face and causes it to disintegrate, which may result in an avalanche bringing down more snow and rock to add to the growing glacier. Eventually, this hollow may become large enough that glacial erosion intensifies. The enlarging of this open ended concavity creates

1833-583: The so-called Kanchenjunga , the Lake District mountain Arthur Ransome 's Swallows and Amazons climb in the Swallows and Amazons novel Swallowdale . The slate quarries and copper mines inspired Pigeon Post , a later novel in the same series. The Old Man of Coniston is also a principal location in the 2020 fantasy young adult novel The Left-Handed Booksellers of London by Garth Nix . Fell A fell (from Old Norse fell , fjall , "mountain" )

1880-513: The south to Norrbotten in the north. Cirque The concave shape of a glacial cirque is open on the downhill side, while the cupped section is generally steep. Cliff-like slopes, down which ice and glaciated debris combine and converge, form the three or more higher sides. The floor of the cirque ends up bowl-shaped, as it is the complex convergence zone of combining ice flows from multiple directions and their accompanying rock burdens. Hence, it experiences somewhat greater erosion forces and

1927-451: 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. Professor of geography at

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1974-515: The summit on a clear day includes much of the southern Lake District, Morecambe Bay , Blackpool Tower , Winter Hill in the Pennines , the Lancashire coast and the Isle of Man . Perhaps the highlight is the close-up view of Dow Crag . The fell is normally climbed from Coniston village via Church Beck and the mines. Alternatives include the south ridge and the path to Goat's Water, both ascending from

2021-469: The tallest volcanic structure in the Indian Ocean . The island consists of an active shield-volcano ( Piton de la Fournaise ) and an extinct, deeply eroded volcano ( Piton des Neiges ). Three cirques have eroded there in a sequence of agglomerated, fragmented rock and volcanic breccia associated with pillow lavas overlain by more coherent, solid lavas. A common feature for all fluvial-erosion cirques

2068-672: 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

2115-479: The word is used in Norwegian 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

2162-587: Was formed by intermittent river flow in the Makhtesh Ramon cutting through layers of limestone and chalk, resulting in cirque walls with a sheer 200 metres (660 ft) drop. The Cirque du Bout du Monde is another such feature, created in karst terraine in the Burgundy region of the department of Côte-d'Or in France . Yet another type of fluvial erosion-formed cirque is found on Réunion island , which includes

2209-538: Was probably at Low Water Quarry, where opencast slate was prised from cuttings near the summit; Scald Kop Quarry, where a large cavern was formed from slate extraction on the surface; and the Saddlestone Quarry, again consisting of two 'caves' where slate had been quarried to form underground workings. The Old Man is within the outcrop of the Ordovician Borrowdale Volcanic Group . A band of

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