Pillar and Ennerdale Fells

Pillar and Ennerdale Fells is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Ennerdale, Cumbria, England. Protected for its biological interest, the site is named after Pillar, which at 892 metres (2,927 ft) is the eighth-highest mountain in the Lake District, and other fells in the same range. The area is 425.25 ha.^[1]

History

The site was notified in 1991. The site includes Side Wood on the south side of Ennerdale Water, which was formerly part of the adjacent Ennerdale SSSI.^[1]

Ecology

Side Wood, which rises from Ennerdale Water, is a good example of an upland birch Betula pubescens – sessile oak Quercus petraea woodland. While there are higher woods in the Lake District,^[2] Side Wood is important as an example of altitudinal succession. The vegetation changes from "native upland birch-oak woodland at 120 m" on the shores of the lake, through "sub-montane heaths and grasslands to montane heaths along the summit ridge at an altitude of 890 m".^[1]

Above the woodland is gently sloping heathland dominated by heather, bell heather and bilberry; the associated grasses are sheep's-fescue, common bent, mat-grass, tormentil and heath bedstraw. Higher up, bilberry and grasses predominate, while on the summit ridge, where the snow lies late, mosses, sedges, lichens and viviparous fescue occur.^[1]

The crags of Pillar, away from grazing sheep, are home to a lush, herb-rich upland ledge community of plants. Breeding birds on Pillar and Ennerdale Fells include buzzard, peregrine falcon, merlin, raven, wheatear, whinchat, ring ouzel and red grouse.^[1]

Ennerdale is managed as a rewilding project called "Wild Ennerdale", which was established in 2003. The Wild Ennerdale Partnership gives scope for the management of this site holistically at the landscape scale.^[3]

Other measures of protection

The SSSI is one of ten underpinning a Special Area of Conservation, Lake District High Fells, which was designated in 2005.^[4]

Land ownership

Two major landowners own land within Pillar and Ennerdale Fells SSSI; National Trust and Forestry Commission. The section owned by Forestry Commission is east of Iron Crag.^[5]

See also

• SSSIs in Cumbria