wild goose chase
Pen-y-ghent
This is a fell. A fell is a type of mountainous landscape found above the alpine tree line in northern England and Scotland. In this part of the world fells were historically used for common grazing of sheep or cattle.
This is a fell in a dale. The Yorkshire Dales, in point of fact. A dale is a large valley in an otherwise hilly area. In this dale, the hills are fells.
This fell is not in a dell. A dell is a small wooded valley. In order to have a dell, you must have woods. This fell has no woods.
This fell is called Pen-y-ghent. In the Cumbric language, which was spoken in this area between the 5th to 10th centuries, pen is thought to have meant a large hill — or possibly a head. In a coastal area, a head is a hill that juts out into the sea. This fell is not in a coastal area. In this part of England, a head is considered to be either the source of a river or the unplowed boundary of a field. The meaning of ghent in the Cumbric language is even more obscure. It could refer to a border region. Or it could refer to a windy region. Both would probably apply.
So this is Pen-y-ghent, a fell in a dale, a hill on a windy unplowed border valley. It seems so obvious now, doesn’t it.
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