Scafell Pike: England’s highest mountain
About 250,000 people a year – on paths without a single signpost.
At 978 metres (3,209 ft) Scafell Pike is England’s highest mountain. It stands in the west of the Lake District National Park above the Wasdale valley and Wast Water. According to the National Trust about 250,000 people climb it every year; the summit plateau and cairn are a memorial to those who fell in the First World War.
The shortest route starts at Lake Head car park near Wasdale Head. Longer routes come up from Borrowdale and Great Langdale. All of them are steep and rocky, and above the valleys there are no signposts or waymarks.
There is no entrance fee for the mountain. You pay for parking; in 2026 the Wasdale Explorer summer bus ran only at weekends until the end of August.
In numbers
- Height
- 978 m (3,209 ft)
- Second-highest summit
- Scafell, 964 m (3,163 ft)
- Visitors
- about 250,000 a year
- Route from Wasdale
- 5.6 km (3.5 mi)
- Time from Wasdale
- about 5 hours
- From Borrowdale or Langdale
- 7 hours or more
- Calls to mountain rescue
- over 600 a year in the Lake District
- Parking at Lake Head
- £7 to £10
