Longlands Fell

Together with Binsey, Longlands Fell is one of the two most northerly fells in the Lake District. Its smooth grass slopes fall gently to the lowlands, and it is the natural first top on a round of the Uldale Fells.

The hamlet of Longlands, a few houses on the minor road north of Skiddaw, is the start. Space there is tight, with informal room for about four cars by the gate signed for Green Head and the Cumbria Way. Overwater, to the west, has easier parking if you do not mind some road walking. The track through the gate runs along the foot of the fell and is part of the Cumbria Way's low level route. Leave it to cross a beck and climb steeply through bracken to the summit cairn.

From the top most people go on. Walk Lakes crosses a boggy dip to Lowthwaite Fell, then goes through tussocks to Brae Fell and returns down Charleton Gill, 7 km with 450 metres of climbing. A 2.5 km ridge leads the other way to Great Sca Fell.

It is grass all the way, soft in places, with no rock at all. Paths get faint beyond the summit, so the map matters more than the gradient.

North of the summit cairn the view reaches the Solway Firth and the hills of Galloway. To the south you see Skiddaw and the fells around Whinlatter.

Someone tried to mine copper here in the second half of the 1800s, but the mine never paid and closed. One of its old levels now supplies water to Uldale. On Aughtertree Fell, close by, there are traces of settlement going back about 3,000 years.