Maiden Moor is a 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 the English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 Lake District

Lake District

The Lake District, also commonly known as The Lakes or Lakeland, is a mountainous region in North West England. A popular holiday destination, it is famous not only for its lakes and its mountains but also for its associations with the early 19th century poetry and writings of William Wordsworth...

, it stands 6 km (3.7 mi) south of the town of Keswick

Keswick, Cumbria

Keswick is a market town and civil parish within the Borough of Allerdale in Cumbria, England. It had a population of 4,984, according to the 2001 census, and is situated just north of Derwent Water, and a short distance from Bassenthwaite Lake, both in the Lake District National Park...

 and is part of the high ground that separates the Newlands Valley

Newlands Valley

The Newlands Valley is in the Lake District National Park in Cumbria, England. It is regarded as one of the most picturesque and quiet valleys in the national park, even though it is situated very close to the popular tourist town of Keswick and the busy A66 road.The valley forms part of the civil...

 and Borrowdale

Borrowdale

Borrowdale is a valley and civil parish in the English Lake District in the Borough of Allerdale in Cumbria, England.Borrowdale lies within the historic county boundaries of Cumberland, and is sometimes referred to as Cumberland Borrowdale in order to distinguish it from another Borrowdale in the...

, it has a modest height of 576 m (1,890 ft) and so fails to be mentioned on many UK

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 mountain lists

Hill lists in the British Isles

The mountains and hills of Great Britain, and to a lesser extent Ireland, are the subject of a considerable number of lists that categorise them by height, topographic prominence, or other criteria. They are commonly used as a basis for peak bagging, whereby hillwalkers attempt to reach all the...

 but it does have a separate chapter in 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...

’s 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...

.

Name

The meaning of the fell's name is obscure, the name "Maiden" is given to many prehistoric

Prehistory

Prehistory is the span of time before recorded history. Prehistory can refer to the period of human existence before the availability of those written records with which recorded history begins. More broadly, it refers to all the time preceding human existence and the invention of writing...

 hill fort

Hill fort

A hill fort is a type of earthworks used as a fortified refuge or defended settlement, located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typically European and of the Bronze and Iron Ages. Some were used in the post-Roman period...

s but there is no evidence that a hill fort ever existed on the fell, it may refer to a place where games or rituals were played where maidens took part.

Topography

The fell's main natural features are Bull Crag which lies below the summit on the Newlands side and the hollow of Yewthwaite Combe which stands beneath the col

Mountain pass

A mountain pass is a route through a mountain range or over a ridge. If following the lowest possible route, a pass is locally the highest point on that route...

 linking the fell with Catbells

Catbells

Catbells is a fell in the English Lake District in the county of Cumbria. It has a modest height of but despite this it is one of the most popular fells in the area. It is situated on the western shore of Derwent Water within of the busy tourist town of Keswick...

 on the Newlands side.

Geology

The Maiden Moor ridge is an example of the Buttermere Formation, an olistostrome

Olistostrome

The term olistostrome is derived from olio - a dish of many ingredients or stew; a mixture of heterogeneous elements; hodgepodge. and stroma - a bed covering...

 of disrupted, sheared and folded 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...

, 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...

 and 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,...

.

Mining and Mrs Tiggy-Winkle

The Combe is the site of the disused Yewthwaite lead

Lead

Lead is a main-group element in the carbon group with the symbol Pb and atomic number 82. Lead is a soft, malleable poor metal. It is also counted as one of the heavy metals. Metallic lead has a bluish-white color after being freshly cut, but it soon tarnishes to a dull grayish color when exposed...

 mine and there are extensive spoil heaps

Slag heap

A spoil tip is a pile built of accumulated spoil - the overburden removed during coal and ore mining. These waste materials are generally composed of shale, as well as smaller quantities of carboniferous sandstone and various other residues...

 and old adit

Adit

An adit is an entrance to an underground mine which is horizontal or nearly horizontal, by which the mine can be entered, drained of water, and ventilated.-Construction:...

s and shafts. The mine opened in the late 18th century and closed in 1893. This mine area was made famous by Beatrix Potter

Beatrix Potter

Helen Beatrix Potter was an English author, illustrator, natural scientist and conservationist best known for her imaginative children’s books featuring animals such as those in The Tale of Peter Rabbit which celebrated the British landscape and country life.Born into a privileged Unitarian...

 as the location of the story "The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle

The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle

The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle is a children's book written and illustrated by Beatrix Potter. It was published by Frederick Warne & Co. in October 1905. Mrs. Tiggy-winkle is a hedgehog and a washerwoman who lives in a tiny cottage in the fells of the Lake District. A child named Lucie happens upon...

", the story she dedicated to Lucy Carr, daughter of the vicar of Newlands Church

Newlands Church

Newlands Church is a 16th century church situated less than 500 metres west of the hamlet of Little Town, Cumbria, England in the Newlands Valley of the Lake District...

, Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle is supposed to have lived in one of the holes in the fell above the mine.

Ascents

Maiden Moor stands between two well known fells (Catbells and High Spy

High Spy

High Spy is a fell in the English Lake District it is situated on the ridge that separates the Newlands Valley from Borrowdale, eight kilometres south of Keswick.-Topography:...

) and is part of the popular Newlands Horseshoe walk, so it is often approached along the ridge from other fells by walkers whose main objective is a longer walk. However the fell can be climbed directly from Grange in Borrowdale and Little Town in the Newlands valley. Both routes climb to the col (Hause Gate) linking the fell to Catbells and then ascend by the northern ridge. Approaching the top of the fell the path splits with the main path continuing to High Spy without (unusually) going over the highest point of the fell. The right hand fork follows the escarpment above Newlands to reach the summit which is crowned by a small cairn

Cairn

Cairn is a term used mainly in the English-speaking world for a man-made pile of stones. It comes from the or . Cairns are found all over the world in uplands, on moorland, on mountaintops, near waterways and on sea cliffs, and also in barren desert and tundra areas...

.

Summit and View

There is no easy way of discerning the exact highest point as the top is a level grassy plateau. There are excellent views across the Newlands valley to the Coledale fells and beyond.