To the north west another low col (c. 280 m) near Baldhowend Farm connects Gowbarrow Fell to the easterly trending ridge from Great Dodd via High Brow and Cockley Moor.

[2] Gowbarrow Fell is bounded by Aira Beck on the west which separates it from Watermillock Common and the foothills of Hart Side.

The site has easy access from the A592 road and a series of paths with two stone bridges at the head and foot of the falls make it a popular place with visitors.

[2] The top of the fell is a broad plateau with a number of small rocky knolls rising above areas of heather and bog.

The main National Trust pay-and-display car park on the A592 road (at its junction with the A5091) has facilities and is popular with visitors heading for Aira Force.

From the village of Dockray a public footpath begins opposite the Royal Hotel and gives the shortest route to the summit (1 mile).

This path runs below Little and Great Meldrum, through the conifer plantation in Swinburn's Park, and then contours along the steep eastern and southern slopes of the fell, giving delightful views over Ullswater on its way to Aira Force.

[5] On the lower ground around the southern and eastern edges of the fell, faulting has exposed an inlier of mudstones from the Skiddaw Group.

[5] These rocks of the Tarn Moor Formation were formed in deep seas when occasional slides of coastal sediments were redeposited at greater depth.

[5] These rocks are part of a thick succession of lava sheets found around the western and northern sides of the Lake District.

[6] The oldest of the volcanic rocks, at the base of the Birker Fell formation, occur uniquely on Little Meldrum and to the south of it, along the western edge of Birk Crag.

These belong to the Little Meldrum Tuff Member, and were formed as volcanic ash, some with droplets of lava among it, was thrown out of volcanoes during explosive eruptions of viscous and highly gaseous magma.

It is not clear whether this was a new grant, or a reconfirmation of Forne's existing holding of lands held by his father Sigulph in pre-Norman times.

The land appears to have remained a hunting ground, for in the late seventeenth century a visitor remarked that it contained more deer than trees.

[11] The Howard family landscaped Gowbarrow Park during the nineteenth century, planting over half a million trees, building bridges and creating paths around Aira Force.