[5] The Scottish lawyer and novelist Sir Walter Scott, wrote his romantic narrative-poem The Bridal of Triermain in 1812.

The precipitous North Crag (75 metres / 246 feet high) was first climbed by Jim Birkett on April Fools' Day, 1939, by a route called Overhanging Bastion.

[7] Since 2011 the North Crag has been considered dangerous because a large crack has opened up at the top creating the potential for a massive rockfall.

[8] South Crag (35 metres / 110 foot} high) is less steep, sunnier and quicker-drying, and holds the less difficult routes.

[3] The summit of Watson's Dodd is a grassy triangular plateau which slopes gently to the east and is bounded by paths on all three sides.

[6] Standing to the west of the main ridge, the summit gives a panoramic view from Blencathra and Skiddaw in the north, round to the Coniston group in the south.

Keeping to the crest of the ridge (after avoiding the initial rocky crags, or after visiting Castle Rock if wished) leads unfailingly to the summit cairn.

[11] Between the individual lava flows may be beds of volcaniclastic sandstone, sedimentary deposits formed from the erosion of the volcanic rocks.

The geological map shows small deposits of this on the fellside, as well as some lapilli tuff resulting from a more explosive eruption.

[11] In the area to the north of Sticks Pass the Birker Fell andesites are overlain by the Lincomb Tarns Tuff Formation.

The Tarn Crags Member makes up Castle Rock, as well as a thin layer higher up the fellside at about the 650 m contour.

Dod or dodd is a dialect word of unknown origin, but is common in hill names in the Lake District and the Scottish Borders for bare rounded summits, either free standing or subsidiary shoulders to higher neighbours.