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Black Sail Pass, Ennerdale and Kinniside
Black Sail Pass
civil parish:-   Ennerdale and Kinniside (formerly Cumberland)
civil parish:-   Nether Wasdale (formerly Cumberland)
county:-   Cumbria
locality type:-   pass
coordinates:-   NY191114
1Km square:-   NY1911
10Km square:-   NY11

photograph
BQX38.jpg (taken 25.6.2009)  
photograph
 Click to enlarge
BSU14.jpg (taken 17.5.2010)  
evidence:-   old map:- OS County Series (Cmd 74 3) 
placename:-  Black Sail
source data:-   Maps, County Series maps of Great Britain, scales 6 and 25 inches to 1 mile, published by the Ordnance Survey, Southampton, Hampshire, from about 1863 to 1948.
evidence:-   descriptive text:- Otley 1823 (5th edn 1834) 
placename:-  Black Sail, The
item:-  horse
source data:-   Guide book, A Concise Description of the English Lakes, the mountains in their vicinity, and the roads by which they may be visited, with remarks on the mineralogy and geology of the district, by Jonathan Otley, published by the author, Keswick, Cumberland now Cumbria, by J Richardson, London, and by Arthur Foster, Kirkby Lonsdale, Cumbria, 1823; published 1823-49, latterly as the Descriptive Guide to the English Lakes.
image OT01P026, button  goto source
Page 26:-  "... Pedestrians, anxious to explore the inmost recesses of the mountains, may follow the lake [Ennerdale Water] to its head, and after passing the sequestered farm of Gillerthwaite, continue their route four of five miles along the narrow dale, ... and ... turn ... to the right, over the Black Sail, to Wasdale head. This way a horse might be taken, but it would be found more troublesome than useful."
evidence:-   old map:- Garnett 1850s-60s H
placename:-  Black Sail
source data:-   Map of the English Lakes, in Cumberland, Westmorland and Lancashire, scale about 3.5 miles to 1 inch, published by John Garnett, Windermere, Westmorland, 1850s-60s.
image
GAR2NY11.jpg
"Black Sail"
hill hachuring 
item:-  JandMN : 82.1
Image © see bottom of page
evidence:-   old text:- Martineau 1855
placename:-  Blacksail
source data:-   Guide book, A Complete Guide to the English Lakes, by Harriet Martineau, published by John Garnett, Windermere, Westmorland, and by Whittaker and Co, London, 1855; published 1855-76.
image MNU1P126, button  goto source
Page 126:-  "... We have mentioned the young man who spent the whole of a previous day in walking round Kirk Fell. Worse happened, in October, 1852, to two gentlemen who went, with a pony, but without a guide, from Buttermere to Wastdale Head, by Scarf Gap and Blacksail. In Ennerdale valley, wind and rain met them. They struggled part of the way along Black-sail, when they became bewildered, and soon so exhausted that they had a narrow escape with their lives. But for a brandy flask, which one of them carried, they could not have survived. The pony seems to have sunk as rapidly as the men. These gentlemen have publicly suggested the erection of some conspicuous landmarks, to show the track; and they have uttered their warning, in corroboration of so many others, against crossing mountains without a guide. One of their chief difficulties was the paths being turned into watercourses, and thereby disguised. It was on the same track that the three Kendal young ladies, mentioned by Mr. Green in his "Guide" (two of whom are still living) lost their way, from dismissing their guide too soon, and actually staid all night on the mountain, where, if it had not been fine summer weather, they would have perished. They took a guide over Scarf Gap, and as far as the junction of the three"
image MNU1P127, button  goto source
Page 127:-  "roads from Buttermere, Ennerdale, and Wastdale. The guide left them on the right road, and with full information as to the rest of the way. They took the wrong side of the brook, however, and so got bewildered. It was only four p.m., when the guide left them: but darkness overtook them still wandering. When they came down upon Tyson's house, early in the morning, the family could not believe the story of their descent, so perilous was the way they had come. One of the ladies had, however, lost a pocket-book; and they had seen a dead sheep: and, somebody immediately going up, these incidents were verified; and the adventure of the Kendal ladies remains one of the wonders of the dales."
evidence:-   old print:- MacBride 1922
placename:-  Black Sail Pass
source data:-   Print, colour, Black Sail Pass, by Alfred Heaton Cooper, published by Adam and Charles Black, 4-6 Soho Square, London, 2nd edn 1928.
image  click to enlarge
MB0131.jpg
Tipped in opposite p.220 in Wild Lakeland by MacKenzie MacBride. 
printed at bottom:-  "BLACK SAIL PASS"
signed at lower right:-  "A. HEATON COOPER"
item:-  JandMN : 195.33
Image © see bottom of page
evidence:-   outline view:- Jenkinson 1875
placename:-  Black Sail Pass
source data:-   Print, lithograph, outline view, Panoramic Sketches from Scawfell Pike, Cumberland, by Edwin A Pettitt, London, published by Edward Stanford, 55 Charing Cross, London, 1875.
image  click to enlarge
Jk01E3.jpg
"... Black Sail Pass ..."
item:-  JandMN : 28.9
Image © see bottom of page

photograph
BYO69.jpg (taken 18.6.2013)  
photograph
BUX59.jpg  A gate,
(taken 4.7.2011)  
notes:-  
 James Payn wrote:-
"To offer a young woman your hand when you are going up Black sail is, in my mind, one of the greatest proofs of attachment that can be given, and if she accepts it, it is tantamount to the everlasting 'yes'. But I would earnestly dissuade young men from proposing to any young girl who rides up the pass, and still more, down the other side of it; for she must be of a reckless, as well as pitiless, mind."

Baron 1925
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