Hampsfell - SD 399 783 (Outlying Fells)

Another quickie about thirty minutes drive from home.

For nerds and the like:
(anti-list-tickers can skip)

Wainwright's book, and the Wikipedia list of his Outlying Fells are confusing because of repeat entries for summits with two names, and others which W calls "nameless" for want of a name on the map, and for which the lists include double entries. I have now found a definitive list on Harold Street:

CLICK HERE FOR WEBSITE

That website shows all defined hill lists in the UK - would you believe there are  over 80 recorded?  

You can join then tick off your ascents on your personal list. Those ascents will then automatically  record on other lists for which your entry qualifies, so, for instance when I started looking at Marilyns I had ticked off all the Munros on the Munro list, and then found that many qualified as Marilyns (and for other more obscure lists), so I had a head start.

There is a league table of members for each list - I feature around number 35 on the Marilyns list.

A similar site:  Hill Bagging, is more user friendly, but you have to enter  dates of ascents, and I didn't have them for many Munros, although you could just enter a notional date. Hill Bagging is useful for its forum for each hill where others record ascents - useful for finding suitable routes and access information etc.

The H.Street Outlying Fells list has 116 summits of which I have climbed 36. I have plotted the rest on Memory Map (Harold Street shows OS grid references -Wainwright doesn't), and I guess there will be wild and obscure visits to come. 

Today's hill has personality. Although only twenty minutes walk from the road it is topped with a unique building and a magnificent limestone pavement and wide cropped turf paths. The building is described by W:

"The Hospice, provided by a pastor of Cartmel in about 1830 for "the shelter and entertainment of travellers over the fell," is a well built structure of dressed limestone with an outer flight of steps and a flat roof on which is a view-indicator (added later and still in working order in 2010*). The open interior offers good shelter and free poetry readings on painted panels on all four walls..."
* One of Chris Jesty's updates in his revised version of W's book

Many superb photos and transcriptions of the poetry can be seen here :

CLICK HERE

I plodded through melting snow and gloomy light. There may be debate about the highest point - the limestone pavement seems higher than the hospice area, but atop the hospice I reckon you are as high as you can get.

I thought the limestone pavement may be the highest point but the top of the hospice seems unequivocal