Lake District
Blake Rigg (Little Langdale)
535M
1755FT
About Blake Rigg (Little Langdale)
Rising sharply above the iconic waters of Blea Tarn, this rugged Birkett offers some of the most celebrated views in the Lake District. Often visited as an outlier of Pike of Blisco, its rocky summit provides a front-row seat to the Langdale Pikes and the winding valley of Little Langdale below.
Key Statistics
Rank
354th Highest in Region
Parent Range
Southern Fells
Prominence
?
24m
Nearest Town
Elterwater
Geology
You are walking across an ancient volcanic landscape of solidified lava and layers of compressed ash and stone fragments from violent prehistoric eruptions.
Find It
OS Grid Reference
NY285039
Latitude
54.4255°N
Longitude
3.1032°W
Did You Know?
- •The name likely derives from the Old Norse 'hryggr' for ridge, while 'Blake' is thought to come from the Cumbrian dialect for yellow, an apt description of the hill when the autumn bracken changes colour.
- •Bill Birkett identifies this as a distinct summit in its own right, whereas Alfred Wainwright omitted it from his main pictorial guides, viewing it merely as a shoulder of its higher neighbour, Pike of Blisco.
- •The summit offers a spectacular perspective of the Great Langdale skyline, where the distinctive profiles of Harrison Stickle and Pike o' Stickle appear perfectly framed above the dark waters of Blea Tarn.
- •Geologically, the hill is part of the Borrowdale Volcanic Group, evidenced by the craggy, fractured rock of Blake Rigg Side which provides a popular, if challenging, scramble for those avoiding the main path.
- •Despite being one of the most photographed hills in the Lake District, the vast majority of those photographs are taken from the car park at Blea Tarn by people who have no intention of actually setting foot on the ridge.