The original circle disappeared from the mountain. Photo: Bob Smith/grough

A group that launched an online appeal to raise cash to replace a missing Lakeland summit marker will install a replica after reaching its target.

The Ordnance Survey triangulation circle mysteriously disappeared from the top of Blencathra last year.

The concrete ring was placed at the head of Hall’s Fell Ridge at the highest point of the 868m (2,848ft) massif in the northern Lake District.

Outdoor enthusiast John Beamson set up a JustGiving page to raise £1,000 to produce a replacement ring. The appeal successfully passed its target and a replica stone was produced in York.

Mr Beamson plans to install the ring on Sunday 3 March and is inviting members of the public to join the ceremony on the hill.

He said the group will meet at the White Horse Inn at the hamlet of Scales at the foot of the mountain at 9am and expects to be at the summit for 11am.

The original circle was an Ordnance Survey trig detector ring, a secondary station rather than the more commonly seen triangulation pillar.

The replacement circle has been fabricated in York

At the time of its disappearance in August 2018, a spokesman for Ordnance Survey said: “We’re really sorry to hear someone’s stolen a trig detector ring.

“This was a phosphor-bronze ring, encased in concrete and buried below surface level over a secondary trig (buried block).

“It could be located using a metal detector to aid the finding of the station in areas where a description alone was not enough.

“To hear that thieves have made off with it is very disappointing.

“We do not hold any replacement rings, and as the ring is only an aid to finding the actual triangulation station, we would not get involved in replacing it.”

Mr Beamson said the Earl of Lonsdale, who owns the mountain after a deciding against selling it in 2016, and his estate staff had been very understanding about the group’s plans to install a replacement ring.