Cross Fell: Delmar Harmood Banner. "Perhaps the worst viewpoint in England' HG. Image Lakeland Arts Trust.
Ever since a sparkling August dawn in 1930 when two of us,
after a night on the summit, saw- unmistakably, on the far northern, western
and southern horizons- the mountains of Scotland, Ireland and Wales from the
top of Scafell, I have been interested in long mountain views. Many of us have
caught glimpses of extremely distant peaks from alpine summits or seen the far
Himalayas- almost unbelievably high in the sky- from Indian hill stations, but
it is more the inter-visibility of British hills that fascinates me nowadays.
How far can we see in the hills on the very clearest days? What are the maximum
visual contacts from our highest mountains? Can you see right across England,
from sea to sea, from any mountain top?
Towards the end of our appallingly wet Lake
District summer I had a letter from a friend reporting "an unbelievable
view, from sea to sea" from the scarcely-obvious viewpoint of Nine
Standards Rigg above Kirkby Stephen. Perched on this modest two-thousander,
close to its line of Dalek-like stone cairns, he was sure he could pick out
both the Solway Firth to the north-west and Hartlepool power station on the
east coast and, since there are long valleys down which to peer on either side,
I'm sure this is perfectly feasible. Indeed, Kipling has a character in Puck of
Pook's Hill claiming to have seen both seas from some Pennine height and, if
you work it out, you will find that the theoretical maximum distance for
inter-visibility between the Rigg and sea-level is something like 65 miles
—quite far enough to reach the coast on either side.
Further, it should be
possible to see the top of any other two-thousander up to 120 miles away from
Nine Standards Rigg under perfect conditions — provided there was no
obstruction in between, which would be most unlikely. All this is based on
purely mathematical calculations — not mine, but more of this later. About one
hundred years ago the Ordnance Survey claimed that the summit of Black Combe
(1,969 feet) commanded "the most extensive prospect in the kingdom" —
a claim probably based on the revelation years earlier by Wordsworth, that from
the top might be seen "the amplest range of unobstructed prospect that
British ground commands". It has nearly always been raining when I've been
on Black Combe but, in perfect weather, the Galloway hills, the mountains of
Mourne and Snowdon are said to be visible from the summit. A very old Ward
Locke guide of mine quotes "several of the older authorities" for the
claim that the southerly view from Black Combe extended to Jack Hill near
Hanley in Staffordshire, but when I mentioned this in one of my early books I
was told by a reader in those parts that he did not know of any such hill
around there?
Elsewhere I have read that the view south from Black Combe is the
longest overland view in England and that 14 counties could be seen from the
summit — before they lost many of them. Whether or not this is true I Can't
say, but I do know that you can see Black Combe from ships leaving the Mersey;
from the North Pier at Blackpool; from the tower of Liverpool Cathedral and
from a score of places along the Lancashire coast — a great shoulder of fell
standing on its own on the very edge of the sea. Scottish mountains, being the
highest in the British Isles, might be expected to provide the most distant
sightings and, according to the summit indicator on Ben Macdhui, the second
highest mountain in Britain, both Ben Hope and the Lammermuirs which are 191
miles apart may sometimes be seen from the cairn in exceptionally clear
weather.
It is also stated in Abercrombie and Goldie's "Weather" that
the Paps of Jura (2,400 feet approx.) have been seen from the summit of Hecla
(1,988 feet) on South Uist — a distance of well over 100 miles. These long
sightings tend to confirm the claim made to me by several people that Ben
Lomond has been fairly positively identified, on a remarkably clear day, from
the top of Red Pike in the Buttermere fells - a distance of something like 120
miles.
According to the following table all these sightings are
possible and, indeed, even far greater examples of extreme visibility are
theoretically feasible. This table was prepared by Patrick Satow, an expert on
weather phenomena
A few years ago, after I had been writing about long sightings
in the hills, wondering how far we could see under perfect conditions, Mr.
Satow kindly worked out the necessary calculations and produced the table. It
gives the theoretical distance in English statute miles at which an object of
known height should be visible for a given height of eye — "under standard
conditions of atmosphere, not including exceptional refraction".
.jpg)
Using the
table it will be seen that the top part of Scafell Pike could be visible from
76 miles away if the height of eye was ten feet above sea-level but observed
from a height of 3,000 feet — say on one of the southern Scottish Munros —the
distance could become 145 miles. It should be emphasised, of course, that all
these theoretical sightings depend on there being nothing in the way to
obstruct the view. It will be seen from the table that the sighting distances
naturally increase as the observer climbs up his mountainside but this distance
increases by ever smaller amounts for each additional 1,000 feet of height —
due to the steadily greater effect of the curvature of the Earth. Patrick Satow
suggests the table can be used in another way. "If you stand on the beach
at Seascale, gazing across at Snaefell, in the Isle of Man, 41 miles
away," he wrote to me, "look along the line for height of eye 10
feet. By interpolation, it will be seen that your horizon 'cuts off' Snaefell
at about 850 feet, and the island below that contour is out of sight.
Conversely, if you stand at 850 feet on Snaefell the beach at Seascale will be
in line with your sea horizon.
Finally, reverse your position again and ascent
to 850 feet at Seascale and your sea horizon to the west will be in line with
the I.O.M. beach. But you cannot do that so you go up Eskdale and start up the
slopes of Scafell. You are now about 50 miles from the Isle of Man and on
reaching 1300 feet above the sea the coastline of the island should just be in
sight. This is found in the table by putting Height of Eye at 10 feet (on the
beach. I.O.M.) and looking at Scafell. The fifty miles comes between the
vertical columns headed 1000 and 1500 feet". The table shows that, in
theory, maximum sightings of up to 145 miles are conceivable, under perfect
conditions, between three-thousanders — say, Scafell and Ben Lomond or the
Carnedds, in North Wales.
So that my dawn
sighting from he top of Scafell more than 55 years ago of the mountains of
Scotland, Ireland and Wales— but from two points about 100 Yards apart — was
nothing remarkable. It has often been claimed that it is possible to see both
the Irish Sea and the North sea from the summit of Cross Fell but, in fact,
because of the hill's flattened dome shape, you can see nothing from the cairn
except about a quarter of a mile of dull foreground and then the limitless sky.
Indeed, the actual summit of Cross Fell is perhaps the worst viewpoint in
England, not the best, although from rather lower elevations on either side of
the fell very long distances, including one or other of the two seas, might
well be visible on a very clear day.
Harry Griffin: First published in Climber- April 1986.
