Wild Boar Fell

Yesterday it was the Wild Boar Circuit in the South Lakes. Today its Wild Boar Fell in the Yorkshire Dales National Park. No relation at all,  in fact this fell was not called Wild Boar until the late 17C having previously  been called Wilbert. Maybe Willbert did not sound tough enough for this peak that is a stark prominent landmark.  One extra shows the fell in the distance as we started our walk and  yes it's that peak in the distance. Why did we come up here?  Well , some running friends had posted a picture on FB of some interesting cairns and of course there was a geocache up here I wanted to find.  You can see the cairns in the main blip, looking like standing stones on the top of the ridge.  Close up in extras.  No-one knows who built them, when or why. Wiki just says there is a fine cluster of "stone men" on the Nab.  An 11 km walk with about 450m of climb up to the cairn at 708m,  the 26th highest Marilyn in England. 
 PS for possibilities as to the origin of the name read Sparse Runners comment below. Note also that there is a tusk of a wild boar in Kirkby Stephen church up the road that claims to come from a boar killed on this very fell 500 years ago.  It is truly a wild Boar Fell, not Wilbert at all

Comments
Sign in or get an account to comment.