Scales Fell
Scales Fell at 682m (2,238ft) is the broad eastern shoulder of Blencathra above Scales village, its open moorland giving fine views east to the Pennines and down to the Vale of Eden.
Summit conditions on Scales Fell
On the summit on Tuesday 27 October: 11° to 4°C, gusts to 52 mph, 16.6 mm of rain forecast over the whole day, midnight to midnight.
The forecast figures are Open-Meteo’s, worked out for the summit’s height. How we check →
Routes up Scales Fell
Choose the way up before the car park: these three routes start from three places, and the last two rows give the parking and bus at each route’s own start. Full maps further down.
| Compared | Blencathra via Blease Fell | Blencathra to Mungrisdale Common and over the back | Blencathra by Sharp Edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starts from | Threlkeld | Mungrisdale village hall (paid) | Scales |
| Distance and climb | 11.88 km, 816 m of climb | 17.59 km, 1,011 m of climb | 7 km, 669 m of climb |
| Time, fast to steady | ~3½–5 h | ~5–7 h | ~2½–3½ h |
| Scrambling | This route deliberately avoids Sharp Edge — that classic arête is a serious, exposed scramble and a frequent accident spot. | Not mentioned in the route’s notes | Graded scramble: Sharp Edge (km 2.7–3.1). Sharp Edge is a Grade 1 scramble, not a walk, and people have died on it. |
| Exposure | Easy | Moderate | Severe |
| Navigation | Hard | Moderate | Moderate |
| Steepest stretch | Descent of about 33% at 7.8 km (Hard) | Descent of about 30% at 16.9 km (Hard) | Climb of about 38% at 2.9 km (Severe) |
| After the summit | No further tops | Over Doddick Fell, Blencathra - Hallsfell Top, Atkinson Pike (Foule Crag), Mungrisdale Common, Bannerdale Crags, Bowscale Fell and Tarn Crags Top (Bowscale Fell East Top) | No further tops |
| Walked or planned | Planned: drawn, not yet walked | Walked by Lee, May 2026 | Planned: drawn, not yet walked |
| Car park at the start | Threlkeld village (no public car park, customers only) | Mungrisdale village hall (paid) | The White Horse (free) |
| Bus to the start | X5 at the start | 509, 3.2 km walk from Mungrisdale, adjacent to Road End | X5, 2.6 km walk from Threlkeld, opposite Blencathra Centre turn |
Times run from fast to steady pace (Naismith’s rule). Scrambling quotes each route’s own notes; “not mentioned” means they do not say, not that the ground has none. Each route’s page has its map, stages and GPX.
Distance, climb and the steepest stretch are measured from each route’s GPX track; the other grades are set on the ground, judged from the map or estimated from OpenStreetMap, and each route page says which. How we check →
How hard is Scales Fell?
The shortest way up we hold is Blencathra by Sharp Edge — 7 km, 669 m of ascent, ~2½–3½ h. On our scale its hardest axes are steepness, terrain and exposure — Severe. Our Blencathra via Blease Fell reaches it with exposure Easy; its hardest axes are steepness and navigation — Hard.
All axes: steepness: Severe · terrain: Severe · exposure: Severe · navigation: Moderate · length: Easy.
These are the route page’s grades, set by the rules on how we grade: length and steepness measured from its GPX track, the others set on the ground, judged from the map or estimated from OpenStreetMap. The route page says which. How we check →
Conditions and 7-day summit forecast
Modelled for the 682 m summit (Open-Meteo). Check the Met Office mountain forecast and MWIS before you set off.
Full 7-day forecast
Taken 27 October 2026, 08:13 UTC; the live forecast replaces it when it loads. Weather data by Open-Meteo.com (opens in new tab)
Parking & buses for Scales Fell
Parking
Route starts first, then the car parks nearest the summit, which are not always a way up.
4 more places to park near Scales Fell
Positions are approximate.
Vehicles are left at their owner’s risk: we list places people park and cannot vouch for any of them. Take valuables with you and leave nothing on show.
Buses
The 509, X4 and X5 stop at Threlkeld, by Village Hall, a 160 m walk from the start of Blencathra via Blease Fell — a route we rate Hard overall (hardest: steepness and navigation). As timetabled from 27 October to 1 November. Towards Keswick (X5): Tuesday to Saturday 22:02; Sunday 19:54. Checked against the operator’s timetable, 7 September 2026. Times here are a guide, not a promise — leave yourself more than the minute.
Rural routes change seasonally — confirm on stagecoachbus.com (opens in new tab) or Traveline before relying on a last bus.
Getting there across the Lake District: Buses · Parking map · By train · By boat
Hazards on Scales Fell
Notes from the Blencathra to Mungrisdale Common and over the back route
If you need to get off (the leg from Souther Fell): From the col above Mousthwaite Comb, a narrow trail drops west to a footbridge over the infant River Glenderamackin; the riverbank is steep, so take care at the crossing, particularly in spate or when slippery. From the footbridge the river path leads north and then east round Souther Fell back to Mungrisdale. The mapped bail point at 4.1 km drops through Mousthwaite Comb to the Scales layby, by the ridge rather than the beck.
Quoted from the route page: the note for the leg that reaches Scales Fell.
We have not written a hazard card for this fell yet, and that is not a sign that it is low-hazard. Read the warnings on the route pages that climb it, check the forecast, carry a map and compass, and turn back in cloud if the ground is not what you expected. The National Park Authority’s What to pack page, AdventureSmart’s hill walking kit list and Mountain Rescue England and Wales’s safety page are linked from our what to carry guide.
Don’t drink from Gategill Beck
On the way down on our route Blencathra via Blease Fell, you cross Gategill Beck, which runs below the old Threlkeld and Gategill lead mines. In Environment Agency samples from it, the typical levels of dissolved lead and cadmium are above the World Health Organization’s drinking-water guideline — that comparison is ours, not the Agency’s. Those samples were taken between 2010 and 2026 at 6 Agency sampling points 25 to 200 m from the route’s line, the nearest “Gategill Beck downstream of Blue Dam”: a record of past sampling, not a test of the water today. This is not the usual hill-water risk: a squeeze or hollow-fibre filter removes none of these dissolved metals, and boiling only concentrates them. Carry your own water for this walk and don’t refill from the beck.
What’s actually in this beck — we mapped every mine-fed one →
Metal-mine water data © Environment Agency (Open Government Licence v3.0).
If you need Mountain Rescue
Dial 999 or 112 and ask for the Police, then Mountain Rescue.
Before you call, have ready: where you are (a grid reference if you can – the OS Locate app shows yours on your phone), what has happened, how many of you there are, and your mobile number.
Then stay where you are until the rescue team contacts you.
If you cannot make a voice call because of a hearing or speech impairment, emergency SMS works only if you have registered first: text “register” to 999.
From Mountain Rescue England and Wales’s guidance on calling them out (opens in new tab) (read 26 October 2026).
Map, GPX and nearby Birketts
Skip mapFree mapping: OpenTopoMap / OpenStreetMap, with SRTM elevation data (switch layers top-right).
Parking, toilets and buses: Parking & buses ↑.
Birketts within 3 km of Scales Fell
These Birkett tops are not Wainwright summits. Distances are straight lines: check the ground and access on a map before adding one.
Routes over Scales Fell
Download GPX Planned route · not yet walked
Download GPX Walked by Lee, May 2026
Route guide: Blencathra to Mungrisdale Common and over the back →
Blencathra deserves its reputation and Sharp Edge deserves its own. This route is here because people are going to walk it and they should walk it with clear information: it is a scramble with genuine consequences, its danger is governed almost entirely by whether the rock is dry, and there is an excellent, safe alternative up the same fell. Mountain rescue attend this ridge every year.
Download GPX Planned route · not yet walked
Every line here is a guide, not a guarantee — conditions change. Navigate for yourself and carry a map and compass. How to use this guide.
On the hill: terrain and water on Scales Fell
Water & shelter on the way up
On the Blencathra via Blease Fell route:
On the Blencathra by Sharp Edge route:
On-route facilities © OpenStreetMap contributors, per route — an absent marker doesn’t mean none.
About Scales Fell
My Strava hikes over Scales Fell
1 logged hike pass over this summit:
- On the 7th Day God Created Blencathra (opens in new tab) — 17.6 km · 960 m ascent · 4h 23m moving · 25 May 2026
Data from Strava.
Classifications & hill data
Is Scales Fell a Wainwright?
Scales Fell is not a Wainwright. It is on the Birkett list and the Synge list.
Selected lists
This is the summit’s grid reference. If you call from anywhere else, give your own position, not this one.
Lists, height and summit position from the Database of British and Irish Hills; the feet are converted from its metres and the grid reference from that position. How we check →
Places to stay near this fell
From Threlkeld: 6 places in Keswick