At some point north of Manchester, England begins to rise, its landscapes begin to breathe, the hallmarks of humanity become less obvious. Whether you’re traveling by rail on the West Coast Mainline or driving along the M6 motorway, as you enter the county of Cumbria, the road, the rails, the cars and the trains all start to feel like toys. You’re suddenly tiny beneath the verdant folds of the Howgill Fells, like a Lego figure dwarfed by green bedsheets.
Maybe 10 minutes before this, you’d glanced to the northwest to see outlines unlike anything else in the country – mountainous shapes silhouetted by the afternoon sun. These are the fells of the Lake District. Anyone who’s visited the national park will be familiar with the term “fell”, a northern English term for a hill or mountain, derived from the Scandinavian word Fjäll (as in Fjällraven).
