Skiddaw Group SSSI

The SSSI designation includes a number of sites of former mines, noted today for the presence of minerals in spoil heaps and erosion sites.

Spoil heaps at Red Gill Mine ({{Ordnance Survey coordinates|NY295347}}) include rare, crystallised lead sulphates, carbonates and phosphates. An adjacent mine at Roughtongill ({{Ordnance Survey coordinates|NY302344}}) reveals supergene minerals including copper and zinc varieties. English Heritage undertook a detailed survey of Roughtongill in 2001 and reported on its history and archaeology.{{cite journal|title=Roughton Gill Mine and Silver Gill Mine, Cumbria|first1=Marcus| last1=Jecock|first2=Christopher|last2=Dunn|first3=Amy|last3=Lax|journal=Archaeological Investigation report|issn=1478-7008|orig-date=2001|date= 24 June 2016|url=https://historicengland.org.uk/research/results/reports/123-2001}}

Dry Gill Mine ({{Ordnance Survey coordinates|NY324345}}) has a unique form of mimetite, known as 'campylite'. At Carrock Mine-Brandy Gill ({{Ordnance Survey coordinates|NY322338}}) the mineralisation is tungsten-rich. Burdell Gill ({{Ordnance Survey coordinates|NY307324}}) "is of national importance as the only relatively abundant source of the rare arsenic mineral, pharmacosiderite, in Britain." A vein at Wet Swine Gill ({{Ordnance Survey coordinates|NY314321}}) includes stibnite and fuloppite.

There are other mine sites not mentioned in the SSSI designation, such as in the wider Grainsgill area ({{Ordnance Survey coordinates|NY327327}}),{{cite journal|journal=Geological Conservation Review|volume=17: Caledonian Igneous Rocks of Great Britain|title=Chapter 4: Lake District and northern England|at=Grainsgill, Caldew valley, GCR ID: 1409|date=1999| first=S.C.|last=Loughlin|url=https://jncc.gov.uk/jncc-assets/GCR/gcr-site-account-1409.pdf}} near to Red Gill Mine, and the Carrock Tungsten Mine ({{Ordnance Survey coordinates|NY323329}}).{{cite web|url= https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/511069/1/OR15033.pdf |last=Shaw|first=R.P.|date=2015|title=The Underground Geology of part of the Carrock Tungsten Mine, Caldbeck Fells|publisher=British Geological Survey Internal Report|number=OR/15/033}}

The Skiddaw Group SSSI includes headwaters of the Caldew operational catchment.{{efn|name=jargon|Natural England groups catchments ('Water Bodies') into 'operational catchments'. Those are grouped into 'management catchments', which are grouped into 'river basin districts'.}} These are in the Whelpo (Cald) Beck and Caldew (upper) catchments.

The Whelpo Beck catchment includes Brae Fell ({{cvt|586|m|ft}}), and the former mine sites at Red Gill and Roughtongill.

The Caldew (upper) catchment includes Great Calva ({{cvt|690|m|ft}}) and Carrock Fell ({{cvt|661|m|ft}}). Around the edge of the catchment, Lonscale Fell, Skiddaw, Skiddaw Little Man, and Bowscale Fell form watersheds with the catchments in the Derwent Operational Catchment area. It includes the former mine sites at Dry Gill Mine, Carrock Mine-Brandy Gill, Burdell Gill and Wet Swine Gill. It also includes Bowscale Tarn ({{Ordnance Survey coordinates|NY336313}}), one of two glacial tarns in the SSSI, where quillwort isoetes lacustris, shoreweed littorella uniflora and water lobelia lobelia dortmanna have been found.

Heather moor predominates on sloping ground north and west of the River Caldew across several catchments. The east-facing slopes of Skiddaw, Little Man and Jenkin Hill exhibit degraded moss heath. Juniperus communis scrub, which is a nationally rare habitat, is most extensive on the steep, rocky south-facing slopes of Carrock Fell ({{Ordnance Survey coordinates|NY342336}}).

The Skiddaw Group SSSI includes headwaters of the Derwent management catchment,{{efn|name=jargon}} consisting of the Ellen (upper) catchment, which flows towards Maryport, and a number of catchments flowing towards Workington:

• Dash Beck
• Derwent [upstream of] Bassenthwaite Lake and Derwent [downstream of] Bassenthwaite
• Glenderaterra Beck
• Glenderamackin [upstream of] Troutbeck and Glenderamackin (Greta)

The Ellen (upper) catchment is at the north of the SSSI in the Uldale Fells. It is bounded by Longlands Fell, Lowthwaite Fell, Little and Great Sca Fells, Meal Fell and Great Cockup. Great Cockup ({{Ordnance Survey coordinates|NY270334}}) is known for fossils of dendroid graptolites. The area is not otherwise mentioned in the SSSI designation. For catchment management purposes, the main water body is the Dale Gill which rises between Great and Little Cockup. The River Ellen's headwaters, with numerous small tributaries, drain the Uldale Fells and join Dale Gill beyond the SSSI boundary.

The SSSI includes the headwaters of the Dash Beck catchment, including short lengths of Dash Beck itself, and of a number of its tributaries. The part of the catchment within the SSSI stretches from Great Sca Fell in the north-east to Ullock Pike {{cvt|7|km|miles}} away in the south-west, with the Whitewater Dash waterfall ({{Ordnance Survey coordinates|NY272313}}) on the beck midway between the two.{{cite web|url=https://environment.data.gov.uk/catchment-planning/WaterBody/GB112075070530|title=Dash Beck Water Body|website=Catchment Data Explorer|publisher=Environment Agency|accessdate=13 May 2025}} The area includes Bakestall where empetrum nigrum is the dominant dwarf-shrub. It also includes Broad End which has "the best developed example [of montane moss-grass heath in West Cumbria] at about {{cvt|700| m|ft}}" elevation. In the north-east of the catchment, the watershed is marked by Knott, Great Sca Fell, Meal Fell, and Great Cockup.

There is a small area of Juniperus communis scrub in Glenderamackin u/s Troutbeck on The Tongue ({{Ordnance Survey coordinates|NY347302}}). The same catchment includes Scales Tarn (Blencathra), one of the two glacial tarns in the SSSI. The tarn has "low nutrient levels and [is] inherently species-poor."

{{notelist}}

{{reflist}}

Category:Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Cumbria