Sheffield Pike
| Sheffield Pike | |
|---|---|
 Sheffield Pike from Hart Side | |
| Elevation | 675 m (2,215 ft) |
| Prominence | c. 90 m |
| Parent peak | Great Dodd |
| Listing | Wainwright, Nuttall, Hewitt |
| Location | |
  Sheffield Pike | |
| Location | Cumbria, England |
| Range | Lake District, Eastern Fells |
| OS grid | NY368182 |
| Coordinates | 54°33′18″N 2°58′43″W / 54.55508°N 2.9787°WCoordinates: 54°33′18″N 2°58′43″W / 54.55508°N 2.9787°W |
| Topo map | OS Explorer OL5 |
Sheffield Pike is a fell in the English Lake District, an outlier of the Helvellyn range in the Eastern Fells. It stands on the eastern side of the range, looking down on Ullswater.
Topography
A broad ridge runs east from the summit of Stybarrow Dodd, crossing a grassy saddle to the subsidiary top of White Stones, the summit of Greenside, where it divides to flank both sides of Glencoyne. The northeast arm continues to Hart Side and Watermillock Common, while the southeast branch drops down a slope, damaged by mining activities beneath, to the depression of Nick Head (c.585 m). From here it rises again to the top of Sheffield Pike.[1]
Broadly oval in plan, Sheffield Pike separates Glencoyne from the Glenridding valley, rising high above both. Both flanks are steep, the Glenridding Screes on the south particularly so, and the upper slopes on both sides have substantial outcrops of rock.[2] East of the summit is a second top named Heron Pike (c.610 m), a rock turret backed by a couple of tiny tarns. Beyond here the ridge again divides in two, to continue on either side of Mossdale. The more southerly branch descends to another col (c.395 m) which connects to Glenridding Dodd, and then runs down to terminate at Stybarrow Crag on the west shore of Ullswater, while the more northerly ridge falls through Glencoyne Wood, past Mart Crag, and again terminates on the shore of Ullswater.[1]
Standing between two valleys and at the head of a third, the northern slopes of Sheffield Pike are drained by Glencoyne Beck, the southern slopes by Glenridding Beck, and the eastern side by Mossdale Beck.[1]
Summit and view
The summit of Sheffield Pike has varied terrain with areas of bog between the rocky outcrops. A broad cairn marks the summit, also carrying an old stone boundary marker dated 1830.[3] Given that this was not noted by Alfred Wainwright in his 1955 Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells the exact provenance of this stone is uncertain. Heron Pike bears a single iron post, another boundary marker. The view from the top is restricted by the higher fells of the Helvellyn range and Ullswater can be better seen from either Heron Pike, or from the cairn above Black Crag on the Glencoyne side.[2]
Ascents
Ascents are usually made from Glenridding village, either via The Rake or Nick Head. These two depressions can also be used to provide access from the quieter valley of Glencoyne. A popular indirect route is to climb Glenridding Dodd first, and then proceed either to Hart Side for a circuit of Glencoyne, or to Stybarrow Dodd and Helvellyn for a much longer horseshoe of Glenridding.
Geology and Mining
All the rocks of Sheffield Pike are part of the Borrowdale Volcanic Group (other than one minor intrusion), formed on the margin of an ancient continent during a period of cataclysmic volcanic activity, roughly 450 million years ago in the Ordovician Period.
Within that Group, nearly all the rocks on the fell belong to the Birker Fell Andesite Formation. These rocks are part of a thick succession of lava sheets which form the lower part of the Borrowdale Volcanic Group, and which outcrop in a wide band around the western and northern sides of the Lake District.[4] They were formed by eruptions of very mobile andesitic lava from ground fissures or shallow-sided volcanoes.[5]
Within the Birker Fell Formation there are some subsidiary deposits of volcaniclastic sandstone and a small deposit of this occurs near the summit of Sheffield Pike.[4]
Two minor igneous intrusions occur on the fell. An intrusion of basalt, a part of the Lake District Ordovician Minor Intrusion Suite crosses Nick Head, and a later intrusion of Devonian age microgranite, part of the Lake District Devonian Minor Intrusion Suite runs along near the top of the crags on the south side of the fell.
The area around Nick Head, on the Glenridding side, was the site of the Greenside Mine. This operated from around 1750 until final closure in 1962, winning lead and silver in what was the District's most successful mining operation. The estimated yield was almost 2,400,000 tons of ore during the lifetime of the mine. Work commenced from levels driven into the higher slopes of Greenside, but by the closure of operations the mine had descended 3,000 ft below the summit of that fell.[6] In 1960 the Atomic Energy Authority used the mine for seismic tests. Two charges were detonated and the shock waves studied, in an effort to improve monitoring of underground nuclear tests by other nations, but the smaller of the two failed to go off.[6]
Considerable evidence of mining remains with extensive spoil heaps on the lower slopes of Sheffield Pike. Part of the mine buildings have been converted into a Youth Hostel. The mine was still working when Alfred Wainwright prepared his Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells.[2]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Explorer map
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Alfred Wainwright: A Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells, Book 1: The Eastern Fells: London: Frances Lincoln (2003) [1955]: ISBN 0-7112-2227-4
- ↑ Richards, Mark: Near Eastern Fells: Collins (2003) ISBN 0-00-711366-8
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 British Geological Survey, 1:50,000 geological map - available through the BGS's iGeology smartphone app. Accessed 12th January 2014
- ↑ BGS Lexicon of Named Rock Units: http://bgs.ac.uk/Lexicon - also available through the BGS's iGeology smartphone app. Accessed 12th January 2014
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Adams, John: Mines of the Lake District Fells: Dalesman (1995) ISBN 0-85206-931-6