Broom Fell is a small hill in the English Lake District. It lies on a ridge connecting Lord's Seat

Lord's Seat

Lord's Seat is a fell in the English Lake District. It is the highest of the group of hills north of Whinlatter Pass in the North Western Fells. The slopes of Lord's Seat are extensively forested.-Topography:...

 and Graystones

Graystones

Graystones is a fell in the English Lake District. It lies in the North Western Fells region and is one of the peaks on the ridge which encircles the valley of Aiken Beck.-Name:...

, but is rarely climbed. Alfred Wainwright

Alfred Wainwright

Alfred Wainwright MBE was a British fellwalker, guidebook author and illustrator. His seven-volume Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells, published between 1955 and 1966 and consisting entirely of reproductions of his manuscript, has become the standard reference work to 214 of the fells of the...

 did however accord it the status of a separate fell

Fell

“Fell” is a word used to refer to mountains, or certain types of mountainous landscape, in Scandinavia, the Isle of Man, and parts of northern England.- Etymology :...

 in his influential guidebook series, the Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells

Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells

A Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells is a series of seven books by A. Wainwright, detailing the fells of the Lake District in northwest England...

.

Topography

The North Western Fells

North Western Fells

The North Western Fells are a group of hills in the English Lake District. Including such favourites as Catbells and Grisedale Pike, they occupy an oval area beneath the Buttermere and Borrowdale valley systems...

 occupy the area between the rivers Derwent and Cocker, a broadly oval swathe of hilly country, elongated on a north-south axis. Two roads cross from east to west, dividing the fells into three convenient groups. The most northerly sector, rising between Whinlatter Pass

Whinlatter Pass

The Whinlatter Pass is a mountain pass in the English Lake District. It is located on the B5292 road linking Braithwaite, to the west of Keswick, with High Lorton to the south of Cockermouth....

 and the Vale of Embleton, includes Broom Fell.

Lord's Seat is the highest of the fells north of Whinlatter and sends out a long ridge westwards. The ridge begins with a marshy depression before rising to the summit of Broom Fell. It then continues west to the more pronounced saddle of Widow Hause, beyond which is Graystones. Widow Hause is densley forested on the southern side with the conifers of the Darling How Plantation.

To the south of Broom Fell is the pleasant valley of Aiken Beck, heavily wooded in its lower reaches. This secluded dale lies between the main ridge and Whinlatter

Whinlatter

Whinlatter is a small fell in the north west of the English Lake District, just north of the Whinlatter Pass. It is easily climbed from the top of the Whinlatter Pass, through the Forestry Commission plantations. The Whinlatter Visitor's Centre, a popular tourist attraction, is on the south side of...

 Fell, draining to the west and ultimately reaching the Cocker. Hidden within the Darling How Plantation is the fine waterfall of Spout Force.

On the northern flank of Broom Fell is Burthwaite Heights (1,043 ft), listed as a separate top in some guidebooks. This is a small hill beside the vast morass of Wythop. Wythop Moss itself lies to the west and drains (slowly) via Tom Rudd Beck. To the east of Burthwaite Heights runs the valley of Wythop Beck, emptying rather more effectively between the twin hills of Ling Fell

Ling Fell

Ling Fell is a small hill in the north west of the Lake District in the United Kingdom. It is close to the village of Wythop Mill, from where it can easily be climbed. The fell is shaped like a wide dome, with no particular dangers. Its name derives from the fact that it is largely covered in...

 and Sale Fell

Sale Fell

Sale Fell is a small hill near Cockermouth in the English Lake District. It is one of the smallest Wainwrights, but is nevertheless popular with locals, as it offers gentle walking and lovely views across Bassenthwaite Lake to Skiddaw.-Topography:...

.

Geology

The predominant rock is the Ordovician

Ordovician

The Ordovician is a geologic period and system, the second of six of the Paleozoic Era, and covers the time between 488.3±1.7 to 443.7±1.5 million years ago . It follows the Cambrian Period and is followed by the Silurian Period...

 Kirk Stile Formation of the Skiddaw Group. This consists of laminated mudstone

Mudstone

Mudstone is a fine grained sedimentary rock whose original constituents were clays or muds. Grain size is up to 0.0625 mm with individual grains too small to be distinguished without a microscope. With increased pressure over time the platey clay minerals may become aligned, with the...

 and siltstone

Siltstone

Siltstone is a sedimentary rock which has a grain size in the silt range, finer than sandstone and coarser than claystones.- Description :As its name implies, it is primarily composed of silt sized particles, defined as grains 1/16 - 1/256 mm or 4 to 8 on the Krumbein phi scale...

. To the south of the summit are outcrops of greywacke

Greywacke

Greywacke or Graywacke is a variety of sandstone generally characterized by its hardness, dark color, and poorly sorted angular grains of quartz, feldspar, and small rock fragments or lithic fragments set in a compact, clay-fine matrix. It is a texturally immature sedimentary rock generally found...

 sandstone

Sandstone

Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...

.

Summit and View

The top is grassy and the summit is marked by the end of a wall coming up from Aiken Beck to the south west. Since this wall connects to no others and simply stops at the highest point, its purpose in unknown. A summit cairn of approximately 2m in height now exists on the summit as does a small wind shelter made from part of the wall.

The view southward takes in the Whiteside

Whiteside (Lake District)

Whiteside is a fell in the north-western area of the English Lake District. It stands at the western end of the Grisedale Pike- Hopegill Head ridge overlooking Crummock Water.-Topography:...

-Grisedale Pike

Grisedale Pike

Grisedale Pike is a fell in the Lake District, Cumbria, England situated west of the town of Keswick in the north-western sector of the national park. At a height of 791 m it is the 40th highest Wainwright in the Lake District; it also qualifies as a Hewitt, Marilyn and Nuttall...

 ridge and the Grasmoor

Grasmoor

Grasmoor is a mountain in the north-western part of the Lake District, northern England. It is the highest peak in a group of hills between the villages of Lorton, Braithwaite and Buttermere, and overlooks Crummock Water....

 fells showing behind. Westward, across the Vale of Lorton, are the Loweswater Fells, and to the east and north there are sightings of higher fells on either side of Lord's Seat. The coastal plain and Solway Firth

Solway Firth

The Solway Firth is a firth that forms part of the border between England and Scotland, between Cumbria and Dumfries and Galloway. It stretches from St Bees Head, just south of Whitehaven in Cumbria, to the Mull of Galloway, on the western end of Dumfries and Galloway. The Isle of Man is also very...

are also seen to good effect.

Ascents

From Wythop Mill a crossing of Wythop Moss can be made, using the old path which gives the only remotely dry footing. Once the marsh is passed an ascent up the northern slope of Widow Hause leads to the ridge.

The alternative is to make use of Aiken Beck, a car park being available near Scawgill Bridge on the Whinlatter Pass road. From the valley the southern slopes of Broom Fell can be tackled direct, or a longer route can be taken via the summit of Lord's Seat.