Atkinson Pike [Foule Crag]

About Atkinson Pike [Foule Crag]

Often overshadowed by the nearby Hallsfell Top, this secondary summit marks the northern terminus of Blencathra’s high plateau. Standing atop the precipitous Foule Crag, it offers a rugged, stony vantage point and serves as the crucial meeting point for those completing the scramble up Sharp Edge or heading towards Mungrisdale Common.

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Did You Know?

• •The name Atkinson Pike is a 19th-century addition to the map, named after George Atkinson, a Penrith man who famously asserted that this northern point was the true summit of the mountain. While modern surveys proved him wrong by several metres, the name has persisted alongside the older, more descriptive 'Foule Crag'.
• •In local Cumbrian dialect, the word 'foule'—from which Foule Crag takes its name—referred to ground that was treacherous, dark, or difficult to traverse. This is a fitting description for the sheer, shadowed cliffs that drop away from the summit into the depths of the Glenderamackin valley.
• •While Alfred Wainwright included this high point within his expansive chapter on Blencathra, it earns individual status as a Birkett, Nuttall, and Synge. It serves as the psychological finish line for walkers topped with adrenaline after completing the narrow, technical traverse of Sharp Edge.
• •The view north from the summit cairn offers a stark contrast to the jagged ridges of the mountain's southern face. From here, the land smooths out into the desolate, rolling moorland of Mungrisdale Common, backed by the massive, rounded bulk of Great Calva and the quiet reaches of the Skiddaw Forest.
• •It is perhaps the only place on the entire massif where one can look directly down the spine of Sharp Edge and feel entirely secure, provided you remain a few yards back from the perimeter of the crag.