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Although we are not fervent peak baggers, the experience of completing a few standard hill lists does nurture an interest in the topography of the land and the position of individual hills relative to their neighbours and surroundings. Whereas most publicised ideas of hills are based on assessments such as their shape, architecture, views, exciting ascent routes etc., it is interesting to see which hills have the strongest presence when all subjective considerations are removed, and they are listed purely on the objective characteristics of the landscape. Central to this idea is the concept of 'prominence', sometimes referred to as 'drop' or 'reascent', which needs to be stated for every objective list, otherwise every tiny hump would need to be included.
Definition:- The prominence of a hill is 'the difference in height between the summit and the lowest contour that surrounds that summit and no higher ground'.
Or alternatively:-
'the difference in height between the summit and the lowest contour inside of which that summit is the highest point'. It sounds a bit geeky but prominence is actually quite intuitive, it gives a measure of how much the hill asserts its own presence, topographically speaking, relative to its surroundings, or how much it protrudes from the surrounding land on all sides. The table below shows the top 20 Lake District hills in order of prominence. | 01 | Scafell Pike | 912 | | 02 | Helvellyn | 712 | | 03 | Skiddaw | 709 | | 04 | Grasmoor | 519 | | 05 | Blencathra | 461 | | 06 | Great Gable | 425 | | 07 | Coniston Old Man | 416 | | 08 | Dale Head | 397 | | 09 | High Street | 373 | | 10 | High Stile | 362 | | 11 | Black Combe | 362 | | 12 | Pillar | 348 | | 13 | Illgill Head | 314 | | 14 | Fairfield | 299 | | 15 | High Raise (Central) | 283 | | 16 | Harter Fell (Eskdale) | 276 | | 17 | Low Fell | 270 | | 18 | Place Fell | 262 | | 19 | Red Screes | 260 | | 20 | Mellbreak | 260 | The highest peak Scafell Pike is bound to top the list, but there are interesting inclusions and omissions. Some fine and lofty fells don't make the top 20: Sca Fell, Bowfell, Crinkle Crags to name a few. Dale Head does not immediately spring to mind when thinking of the really grand fells of the Lakes, yet it comes in at a remarkable number 8. Black Combe is an outlier that tends to be forgotten but makes an impressive number 11. The biggest surprise to us though was the appearance of Low Fell at number 17, we would never have guessed that. Apart from Dale Head and Low Fell, it is easy to see with a little thought why the rest make it into the list. Each one is either the highest of a compact group of fells or an isolated fell with no very close neighbours to share a col. We hope this has been an interesting little diversion, it provides yet another way of looking at the Lake District landscape and studying all its aspects. |
