Saturday 1 July 2000

Rampsgill Head

The craggy north face of Rampsgill Head
Height: 792m (2,598ft)
Prominence: 41m (135ft)
Region: Far Eastern Fells
Classifications: Hewitt, Nuttall, Wainwright, Birkett
Summit feature: Cairn
Times climbed: 3
Related trip reports:
High Street via Riggindale & Kidsty Pike - 22/07/2018
A Tour of Hayeswater - 11/01/2014
The East Martindale Fells - 05/04/2014
The summit plateau looking towards High Raise
What Wainwright said:

"There is usually little difficulty in defining the boundaries of a mountain. If it rises in isolation there is no difficulty. Rampsgill Head is, geographically, a 'key' point in the High Street range, for two independent ridges leave its summit. It is remarkable that a neat and precise definition of its natural boundaries cannot be given".

Rampsgill Head is the fell that stands, funnily enough, at the head of Ramps Gill to the west of Haweswater Reservoir. It forms the focal point of three ridges which fan out north east, north-west and south.

Rampsgill Head is the next summit north on the High Street range, separated from its parent by the dramatic narrowing of the Straits of Riggindale. The northern face of the fell drops 550m over rough ground into the bowl of upper Rampsgill. The southwestern flank above Hayeswater and the southeastern above Riggindale (a feeder of Haweswater) are craggier, none of them giving a realistic route of ascent for the average walker.

The summit consists of a grassy plateau with a little-outcropped rock, a cairn marking the top. A larger cairn is set on the brink of the north face peering into Ramps Gill. The view westward to the Helvellyn range is good with Ullswater and Brothers Water also visible.

Return to Lake District – Far Eastern Fells

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