Thorny Bank

Rising above the quiet waters of Wet Sleddale Reservoir, this modest grassy hump offers a lonely experience away from the central Lake District crowds. At 375 metres, it is a Synge-classified fell providing a wide, open perspective over the eastern moorlands towards the distant Pennines and the nearby massif of Branstree.

• •As a Synge-classified hill, it is featured in Tim Synge’s 'The Lakeland Fells', a guidebook focusing on fells that reach at least 300 metres in height but were often overlooked by Alfred Wainwright.
• •The name likely derives from the Old English 'þornig', indicating a slope that was historically marked by hawthorn or blackthorn scrub, typical of the lower eastern fringes of the Lake District.
• •The hill is frequently bagged alongside Sleddale Pike and the confusingly named Wasdale Head—a minor summit that shares its name with the famous valley in the west of the National Park.
• •From the summit, walkers can see the deep blue of Wet Sleddale Reservoir directly below, with the M6 motorway visible to the east as it carves through the landscape toward the North Pennines.
• •It is a hill for the connoisseur of quiet solitude, or perhaps just for the walker who has finally run out of fells with better drainage.