Height: 1056 feet above sea level.
Volume: Book 4 (The Southern Fells)
Date climbed: First visit: 16th September 2011 (walk 44). Second visit: 23rd July 2016 (walk 114).
Bagged as number: First round: 141 of 330. [ << Holme Fell (140) (142) Ullscarf >> ]
Second round: 52 of 330. [ << Seat Sandal (51) (53) Latterbarrow >> ]
Route of ascent and descent: First visit: Approached by way of the path that loops round the southern shoulder of the fell, above Tarn Hows, then up through the Iron Keld plantation. Descended to the east, ploughing through bracken for ten minutes before reaching the track that leads down through Pullscar Plantation to the Drunken Duck Inn.
Second visit: Came up, ultimately, the same way, although with a different preamble. Descended by reversing the route of ascent, then went down to the road at Knipe Fold.
What Mr Wainwright says (from pages 3 and 4 of his chapter): “Everybody knows Tarn Hows, but few the summit of the fell rising behind, above immature plantations…. The lovely countryside around the head of Windermere is delightfully pictured, this being the best viewpoint for the sylvan charms of the area between Ambleside, Wray Castle and Hawkshead. Southwards, Coniston Water is seen above the indented and wooded shores of Tarn Hows, which appears as beautiful as ever but a trifle foreign to the district.”
What I say: My first visit took place on a cloudy, drizzly day. I was trying to get Black Fell done quickly and did not give it much attention. My second visit was much more fulfilling. It certainly does have a very good view for such a low-altitude fell. In this respect, and others it is a lot more characteristic of the Outlying Fells than the volume it appears in. It also has Tarn Hows nearby, which is definitely worth seeing.
The summit, by the way, is marked on the OS map, and also the map of the Tarn Hows estate posted at the car park, as ‘Black Crag’, and if there were any doubt about this, this is only – I think – the second fell I’ve visited which somehow bears its name on the summit, as you can see in the picture above. (In case you were wondering, the first is Dodd.) Wainwright seems to be the only authority that calls this hill Black Fell instead of Black Crag.
The 214 Wainwright fells: without a car 
[…] of which I was stood as I took this shot) remains one of my very favourites, as is the one of Black Fell, below, taken from pretty much the same point. Minor hills in both cases but because of these shots […]
[…] on land nicked from the peasants by an Act of Parliament in 1862). It also took in three summits, Black Fell from Wainwright’s volume 4, and Latterbarrow and Claife Heights from the Outyling […]