Hugh Seat

Infobox Mountain
Name = Hugh Seat
Photo = ladypillar_sketch.jpg
Caption = The summit, Lady's Pillar
Elevation = 689 m (2,260 ft)
Location = Mallerstang, Cumbria, England
Range = Pennines
Prominence = ca 80 m| Parent peak = Great Shunner Fell
Coordinates = 54° 23' 14.7" N 2° 17' 53" W
Topographic
OS "Landranger" 98
Grid_ref_UK = SD8091599100
Listing = sub-Hewitt, Nuttall

Hugh Seat is a mountain, or more accurately a fell, in Mallerstang on the eastern edge of Cumbria, England. It lies on the present border between Cumbria and the Yorkshire Dales National Park.

and
North Yorkshire near the summit of Hugh Seat - photo by Ian Greig.]

Hugh Seat is a high point above Black Fell Moss, an extensive area of peat bog drained by Red Gill Beck, which is the source of the River Eden. At this "watershed of England" two other great rivers, the Ure and the Swale, also rise within a kilometer of the Eden.

Although it has a relatively small prominence, having several other high points nearby (and is therefore classified as a "sub-Hewitt" or a Nuttall but not a Marilyn), Hugh Seat nevertheless rises conspicuously above the source of the River Eden.The old name for this peak was Hugh Seat Morvill or sometimes Morvil Hill, [M. Ffinch, "The Howgills and the Upper Eden Valley", Hale, 1982 (page 22)] (and Daniel Defoe confuses it with Wild Boar Fell in his "Tour"). [Daniel Defoe, "Tour through the whole Island of Great Britain", (Letter 10), Penguin Books] Near the summit there is a column of cut stones, known as "Lady's Pillar", and the inscription "AP1664" can just be made out - for "Anne Pembroke", Lady Anne Clifford's married name. The pillar was erected in 1664 to commemorate Sir Hugh de Morville, Lady Anne's predecessor as Earl of Cumberland and Lord of the Manor of Mallerstang. (Sir Hugh was one of the four knights responsible for the murder of Archbishop St.Thomas Beckett in Canterbury Cathedral in 1170).

The border between the counties of Cumbria and North Yorkshire is marked near the summit by a fence, which is intended to stop sheep which are "heafed" (trained to stay in a certain area without the need for fences) straying beyond their allotted common land.

There are extensive views from the summit - south east to Cotterdale and Wensleydale, north west to Gregory Chapel, and west to Mallerstang and Wild Boar Fell. This rugged terrain between Great Shunner Fell and Wild Boar Fell, (part of what David Bellamy has called "the last wilderness in England"), is too inaccessible to be well known by tourists, but it is a favourite route for many walkers. [A. Wainwright, "Wainwright in the Limestone Dales", Guild Publishing, 1991 (page 19)]

External links

* [http://mallerstang.com/visit.html Mallerstang Dale website: "A virtual walk through Mallerstang"]

References