Scafell Pike

At 978 metres Scafell Pike is the highest point in England, a summit of bare volcanic boulders with almost no soil, reached by several routes of which the shortest, from Wasdale Head, gains about nine hundred metres in five kilometres. The summit cairn is a large stone platform, and a plaque records that Lord Leconfield gave the land to the National Trust in 1919 in memory of the men of the Lake District who died in the First World War. It is one of the Three Peaks, climbed with Snowdon and Ben Nevis inside twenty-four hours, which brings large numbers of night walkers through Wasdale in summer. Broad Crag and Ill Crag on the ridge are higher than many separate mountains. Navigation on the summit plateau is difficult in cloud, which is common.

What you actually see

• The boulder summit - bare volcanic rock with a large stone cairn platform.
• The 1919 memorial - the plaque recording the gift of the summit to the nation.
• The Wasdale route - the shortest ascent, nine hundred metres in five kilometres.
• The plateau ridge - Broad Crag and Ill Crag on the approach from Borrowdale.

When to go

May to September for the best conditions; the mountain is in cloud a large proportion of the year and holds snow and ice into spring. Weekday ascents are far quieter than weekends, when the paths are busy from dawn.

Honest expectations

This is a serious mountain, not a walk: the ground is loose boulder for the final section, navigation in cloud is genuinely difficult, and mountain rescue is called out here more than almost anywhere in England. Parking at Wasdale and Seathwaite is minimal. Three Peaks groups cause congestion and litter through the night in summer.

Nearby

Wastwater lies below the Wasdale route; Great Gable and Borrowdale are north.