Dollywaggon Pike is a fell in the English Lake District. It stands on the main spine of the Helvellyn range in the Eastern Fells, between Thirlmere and the Ullswater catchment.
Toponymy
The spelling ‘Dollywaggon’ is used on Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 maps but ‘Dollywagon’ on 1:50,000 maps. The Ordnance Survey gazetteer, nominally based on the 1:50,000 maps, lists only ‘Dollywaggon Pike’. As of 2005, the ‘Dollywagon’ spelling is slightly more common in online references. Alfred Wainwright used ‘Dollywaggon Pike’ in his Pictorial Guide, a position supported by other writers. One meaning for the word Dollywaggon gives an Old Norse source formed by the combination of ' (‘fiend’ or ‘giant’) and veginn (‘lifted’).
Topography
thumb|300px|right|Map showing Dollywaggon Pike and surrounding features from 1925.
The Helvellyn range runs broadly north–south for about , remaining above throughout its length. Dollywaggon Pike is the southernmost fell of the ridge proper, with Nethermost Pike immediately to the north. There is a subsidiary top between Nethermost and Dollywaggon Pikes named High Crag (). Due to the very limited depression between the two, most guidebooks follow Wainwright in counting High Crag as a part of Nethermost Pike. To the south of Dollywaggon Pike is the complex depression containing Grisedale Tarn, with Seat Sandal and Fairfield rising beyond.
In common with much of the Helvellyn range there is a marked contrast between the western and eastern slopes of Dollywaggon Pike. In Wainwright’s words ‘To the west, uninteresting grass slopes descend to Dunmail Raise almost unrelieved by rock and scarred only by the wide stony track gouged across the breast of the fell by the boots of generations of pilgrims to Helvellyn. But the eastern side is a desolation of crag and boulder and scree.’
On the east, the first impression is all of rock. The long strath of Grisedale runs north-eastward to Ullswater, cutting off a series of hanging valleys which fall from the Helvellyn range. To the north-east of Dollywaggon Pike, below the summit of High Crag, is Ruthwaite Cove, a corrie surrounded on three sides by crag. Ruthwaite Cove is now the site of Ruthwaite Lodge, a climbing hut. It was formerly the setting for more industrious activity, with the remains of several levels and some shallow open mineworking being visible near the Lodge. These excavations were made for lead-bearing galena, and are believed to have been worked in the sixteenth century. Further leases were taken out in 1784 and 1862, the last-known operation being in 1880. The outflow is to Ullswater to the north east, picking up all of the rainfall from the eastern face of Dollywaggon Pike. To the west of the tarn is the unnamed col between Dollywaggon Pike and Seat Sandal and immediately to the south is Grisedale Hause, the depression between Seat Sandal and Fairfield. Thus Seat Sandal stands topographically on the ridge between the two higher fells, but so out on a limb that many walkers proceed directly from Dollywaggon Pike to Fairfield.
Geology
Geologically the summit of the fell forms part of the Deepdale Formation, (principally volcaniclastic sandstone) underlain by the dacitic lapilli tuff of the Helvellyn Formation.
Summit
The summit is a small grassy rise directly at the head of The Tongue. It carries a small cairn with a larger one a few yards to the west. The view is extensive with the eastern foreground particularly fine