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682 m · Birkett — Northern (not a Wainwright summit) · Birketts to bag nearby, parking, buses, my hikes and live summit weather.

Birkett — Northern (not a Wainwright summit)Birkett top

Scales Fell

Scales Fell at 675m (2,215ft) 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.

682 m
Height
+5
Bonus Birketts
See routes & download GPX →

Home › Fells › Scales Fell

Written and walked by Lee McCoy · Last reviewed

682 mBirkett — Northern (not a Wainwright summit)+5 bonus Birketts within 3 km

Is it worth going? — Today’s conditions & 7-day summit forecast

Modelled guidance for the 682 m summit. Always check the Met Office mountain forecast and MWIS before you set off.

On the summit today (Tue 28 Jul): 14° to 13°C, gusts to 41 mph, 8.8 mm of rain forecast.

Tue 28 Jul
🌧️
14° / 13°
💨 41 mph
🌧 8.8 mm (61%)
Wed 29 Jul
🌧️
15° / 10°
💨 31 mph
🌧 10.8 mm (71%)
Thu 30 Jul
🌦️
13° / 5°
💨 31 mph
🌧 1.7 mm (76%)
Fri 31 Jul
🌤️
14° / 1°
💨 24 mph
🌧 0.0 mm (76%)
Sat 1 Aug
🌦️
14° / 3°
💨 15 mph
🌧 2.7 mm (55%)
Sun 2 Aug
☁️
15° / 2°
💨 17 mph
🌧 0.0 mm (28%)
Mon 3 Aug
🌦️
15° / 5°
💨 15 mph
🌧 0.4 mm (22%)

Forecast snapshot from 28 Jul 2026, 04:58 UTC — refreshed nightly and updated live in your browser. Temperatures and gusts adjusted to the 682 m summit altitude via Open-Meteo. Summit conditions are always harsher than the valley — check the professional mountain forecasts before you go.

Pro mountain forecasts: MWIS · Met Office mountain forecast

About the walk

Key information

Scales Fell

Scales Fell at 675m (2,215ft) 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. A Birkett fell on the eastern approaches to Blencathra, giving the walk to Scales Tarn and Sharp Edge its early character. The views of Blencathra's eastern face from the Scales Tarn hollow are memorable.

Routes up Scales Fell

Hand-mapped, with GPX to download — full maps further down.

Blencathra via Blease Fell
11.9 km · ~3.6 hr · Easy
A shorter, easier way up the great northern fell of Blencathra than my favourite round from Mungrisdale over Souther Fell. From Threlkeld it climbs the grassy shoulder of Blease Fell (Knowe Crags) to the summit, with a fine high traverse over Gategill Fell Top, Doddick Fell and Scales Fell, and it avoids the boggy ground of Mungrisdale Common. A grand viewpoint over the northern fells and the Eden valley for relatively modest effort — and well clear of the notorious Sharp Edge.
Blencathra to Mungrisdale Common and over the back
17.6 km · ~5.1 hr
Blencathra by Sharp Edge
7 km · ~2.5 hr · Severe
The most exposed ridge in the Lake District that walkers routinely attempt — a narrow, airy arete of polished rock above Scales Tarn, followed by a steep pull onto Blencathra and a fine descent over Doddick and Scales Fell. It is a magnificent line. It is also the single most dangerous thing on this site, and we are not going to soften that.
Classifications & hill data
Birkett
Synge
682 m
Height
2,238 ft
In feet
NY 3317 2787
Grid ref

Map & nearby Birketts

Free mapping: OpenTopoMap / OpenStreetMap (switch layers top-right). Parking positions are approximate.

Nearest parking: Scales, A66 (layby), about 1.5 km from the summit (straight line). Full parking, toilets and bus details are below.

Birketts near Scales Fell (within 3 km)

These Birkett tops are not Wainwright summits — detour to them on this walk and they are pure profit. Distances are straight-line; allow extra for terrain.

0.4 km WSWDoddick Fell742 m · Northern
0.8 km WNWAtkinson Pike (Foule Crag)845 m · Northern
1.5 km WSWGategill Fell Top852 m · Northern
2.1 km WSWKnowe Crags (Blease Fell)804 m · Northern
2.8 km NEThe Tongue553 m · Northern

Routes over Scales Fell

Blencathra via Blease FellPlanned
11.88 km · ~750 m ascent · loop · ~3.5–5 h · Clockwise · Easy
Summits: Knowe Crags (Blease Fell)Gategill Fell TopBlencathra - Hallsfell TopDoddick FellScales Fell

⬇️ Download GPX

Best season: Any season in good conditions; the grassy ridges are straightforward but exposed.

⚠️ Warnings: This route deliberately avoids Sharp Edge — that classic arête is a serious, exposed scramble and a frequent accident spot.; Steep grass on the descent ridges can be slippery when wet.

Full route guide ↗

✎️ Planned route — drawn but not personally walked or checked yet.

A planned line is a suggestion, not a guarantee — conditions change. Navigate independently and carry a map & compass.

Blencathra to Mungrisdale Common and over the backRevised
17.59 km · ~961 m ascent · loop · ~5–7 h
Summits: Souther FellScales FellDoddick FellBlencathra - Hallsfell TopAtkinson Pike (Foule Crag)Mungrisdale CommonBannerdale CragsBowscale FellTarn Crags Top (Bowscale Fell East Top)

⬇️ Download GPX

Full route guide ↗

A planned line is a suggestion, not a guarantee — conditions change. Navigate independently and carry a map & compass.

Blencathra by Sharp EdgePlanned
7.0 km · ~644 m ascent · loop · ~2.5–3.5 h · Severe
Summits: Atkinson Pike (Foule Crag)Blencathra - Hallsfell TopDoddick FellScales Fell

✎️ 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

Best season: Dry, still, clear conditions only. Not in the wet, not in wind, not in winter, not in cloud. If you arrive and it is greasy, walk up Scales Fell instead — the summit is the same and it will still be there next month.

⚠️ Warnings: Sharp Edge is a Grade 1 scramble, not a walk, and people have died on it. You will use your hands. There is serious exposure on both sides, and a slip in the wrong place is not survivable. If you are not certain you want to be there, you do not want to be there.; The rock is polished to a shine by a century of boots and is lethal when wet. Rain, dew, damp mist or a light greasiness are all enough. This is the single commonest factor in accidents here. If it is not dry, do not step on to it.; The crux is not the crest — it is the far end. Where the edge meets the mountain there is a short, steep, awkward slabby step onto Foule Crag. It catches people who have relaxed because the narrow bit is behind them.; Wind is disqualifying. A gust on an arete you are straddling is exactly the wrong problem to have.; There is no easy retreat from the middle of the edge. Committing is the decision you make at Scales Tarn, not halfway across.; If you have any doubt at all: Blease Fell gives you the same summit by a straightforward walk. Choosing it is good judgement, not cowardice.

Full route guide ↗

✎️ Planned route — drawn but not personally walked or checked yet.

A planned line is a suggestion, not a guarantee — conditions change. Navigate independently and carry a map & compass.

Best parking to hike Scales Fell

Where we have the data, each parking spot also shows the nearest public toilets and facilities (cafés, pubs, shops).

Scales, A66 (layby) — 1.5 km from summit (straight line)
Laybys near the White Horse Inn — Blencathra via Scales Fell or Sharp Edge.
Directions
🚺 Threlkeld Village Hall (1856m) — Free · Accessible
Threlkeld village (free/donation) — 2.6 km from summit (straight line)
Blencathra via Hall's Fell ridge; Clough Head across the valley.
Directions
🚺 Threlkeld Village Hall (57m) — Free · Accessible☕ Threlkeld Coffee Shop🍺 Horse & Farrier Inn🍺 Salutation Inn

Positions are approximate — zoom the map to confirm. Lakeland car parks fill before 9am on fine weekends.

Tip: pan and zoom the interactive map at the top of this page to spot other potential parking near your route.

Water & shelter on the way up

On the Blencathra via Blease Fell route:

🛖 map (4 m)🚌 War Memorial (W bound) (106 m)🚌 War Memorial (E bound) (114 m)🚌 Horse & Farrier (E bound) (285 m)🚌 West End (E bound) (400 m)

On the Blencathra by Sharp Edge route:

⛺ The Bunkhouse (26 m)

On-route facilities © OpenStreetMap contributors, per route — an absent marker doesn’t mean none.

Buses to Scales Fell from Penrith / Ambleside / Windermere

Stagecoach X4 / X5
Penrith – Rheged – Threlkeld – Keswick – Braithwaite – Cockermouth – Workington
Catch it from: Penrith
Year-round, frequent. From Penrith this is your way into Keswick and the Northern fells — Threlkeld/Scales stops serve Blencathra directly, Braithwaite serves the Coledale fells.

Rural routes change seasonally — confirm on stagecoachbus.com or Traveline before relying on a last bus.

My hikes over Scales Fell (Strava)

1 logged hike pass over this summit:

Interactive route maps and photos load here for visitors with JavaScript. Data from Strava.

Don’t drink from Gategill Beck

On the way up you cross Gategill Beck, which runs below the old Threlkeld and Gategill lead mines. The Environment Agency records it carrying dissolved lead and cadmium above the level that is safe to drink. This is not the usual hill-water risk: a squeeze or hollow-fibre filter (LifeStraw, Sawyer and the like) 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).

Other fells near Scales Fell

Maps & guidebooks for Scales Fell

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