Scafell Pike () is the highest and the most prominent

mountain A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually higher ...

in England, at an elevation of above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardis ...

. It is located in the

Lake District National Park The Lake District National Park is a national park in North West England that includes all of the central Lake District, though the town of Kendal, some coastal areas, and the Lakeland Peninsulas are outside the park boundary. The area was desi ...

, in

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in North West England, bordering Scotland. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local government, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. ...

, and is part of the Southern Fells and the Scafell massif. Scafell Pike forms part of the inactive Scafells

volcano A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates ...

Etymology and name history

The name ''Scafell'' is believed by some to derive from the Old Norse ''skalli fjall'', meaning either the fell with the

shieling A shieling is a hut or collection of huts on a seasonal pasture high in the hills, once common in wild or sparsely populated places in Scotland. Usually rectangular with a doorway on the south side and few or no windows, they were often con ...

or the fell with the bald summit, and is first recorded in 1578 in the corrupted form ''Skallfield''. An alternative derivation is from the Old Norse "skagi", meaning a cape, headland, promontory or peninsula – so giving an etymology that aligns with Skaw in

Shetland Shetland, also called the Shetland Islands and formerly Zetland, is a subarctic archipelago in Scotland lying between Orkney, the Faroe Islands and Norway. It is the northernmost region of the United Kingdom. The islands lie about to the n ...

. It originally referred to Scafell, which neighbours Scafell Pike.Dorothy Wordsworth's ascent of Scafell Pike, 1818, http://www.pastpresented.ukart.com/eskdale/wordsworth1.htm What are now known as Scafell Pike, Ill Crag, and Broad Crag were collectively called either ''the Pikes'' (peaks) or ''the Pikes of Scawfell'' (see below regarding spelling); from many angles Scafell seems to be the highest peak, and the others were thus considered subsidiary to it. The name ''Scawfell Pikes'' was adopted "by common consent" according to Jonathan Otley, shortly before the publication of the 4th edition of his guidebook in 1830. Up to this point, England's highest mountain (its status as such was not known until the early 1800s) did not have a name of its own; it was labelled ''Sca-Fell Higher Top'' by the Ordnance Survey in their initial work in Cumbria in the first decade of the 19th century. The newly developed name reported by Otley first appeared on a published Ordnance Survey map in 1865. Formerly the name was spelled ''Scawfell'', which better reflects local pronunciation.These references on spelling of "Scafell"/"Scawfell" are examples of the more common usage during the 19th century and the early part of the 20th century, as can readily be found in the many contemporary guidebooks and local and national newspapers. A useful contrast is the difference in Baddely's guide (1st edn. 1888 and many later editions) between the guide text ("Scafell", following the maps used in this common guide-book) and all the adverts therein of hotels, tours and views, which were placed by local businesses ("Scawfell"). This spelling has declined due to the Ordnance Survey's use of ''Scafell'' on their 1865 map and thereafter.

Topography

Scafell Pike is one of a horseshoe of high fells, open to the south, surrounding the head of Eskdale, Cumbria. It stands on the western side of the

cirque A (; from the Latin word ') is an amphitheatre-like valley formed by glacial erosion. Alternative names for this landform are corrie (from Scottish Gaelic , meaning a pot or cauldron) and (; ). A cirque may also be a similarly shaped landf ...

, with Scafell to the south and Great End to the north. This ridge forms the watershed between Eskdale and Wasdale, which lies to the west. The narrowest definition of Scafell Pike begins at the col of Mickledore 831.6 m (2728 ft) in the south, takes in the wide, stony summit area and ends at the next depression, Broad Crag

Col In geomorphology, a col is the lowest point on a mountain ridge between two peaks.Whittow, John (1984). ''Dictionary of Physical Geography''. London: Penguin, 1984, p. 103. . It may also be called a gap. Particularly rugged and forbidding co ...

, c. 877.6 m (2,879 ft). A more inclusive view takes in two further tops: Broad Crag, 935.3 m (3,069 ft) and Ill Crag, 930.9 m (3,054 ft), the two being separated by Ill Crag Col, 882.3m. This is the position taken by most guidebooks.Richards, Mark: ''Mid-Western Fells'': Collins (2004): North of Ill Crag is the more definite depression of Calf Cove at 853.4 m (2,800 ft), before the ridge climbs again to Great End 909.5m. Scafell Pike also has outliers on either side of the ridge.

Lingmell Lingmell is a fell in the English Lake District, standing above the village of Wasdale Head. It is an outlier on the north-west flank of Scafell Pike, England’s highest mountain. Topography Although standing in the shadow of its taller parent ...

807 m (2648 ft), to the north west, is invariably regarded as a separate fell, while Pen, 760 m (2,500 ft), a shapely summit above the Esk, is normally taken as a satellite of the Pike. Middleboot Knotts is a further top lying on the Wasdale slopes of Broad Crag, which is listed as a

Nuttall Nuttall may refer to: People * Nuttall (name) * Nuttall baronets Nature * Nuttall's oak, a fast-growing large deciduous oak tree native to North America * Nuttall's woodpecker, a species of woodpecker found in oak woodlands of California * Nutta ...

. The rough summit plateau is fringed by crags on all sides with Pikes Crag and Dropping Crag above Wasdale and Rough Crag to the east. Below Rough Crag and Pen is a further tier, named Dow Crag and Central Pillar on

Ordnance Survey Ordnance Survey (OS) is the national mapping agency for Great Britain. The agency's name indicates its original military purpose (see ordnance and surveying), which was to map Scotland in the wake of the Jacobite rising of 1745. There was a ...

maps, although known as Esk Buttress among climbers.''British Mountain Maps: Lake District'': Harvey (2006): Broad Crag Col is the source of Little Narrowcove Beck in the east and of Piers Gill in the west. The latter works its way around Lingmell to Wast Water through a spectacular ravine, one of the most impressive in the Lake District. It is treacherous in winter, as when it freezes over it creates an icy patch, with lethal exposure should you slip. Broad Crag is a small top with its principal face on the west and the smaller Green Crag looking down on Little Narrowcove. From Broad Crag, the ridge turns briefly east across Ill Crag Col and onto the shapely pyramidal summit of Ill Crag. Ill Crag and its associated crags overlook Eskdale. Scafell Pike has a claim to the highest standing water body in England in Broad Crag Tarn, which (confusingly) is on Scafell Pike proper, rather than on Broad Crag. It lies at about , a quarter of a mile (400 m) south of the summit. Foxes Tarn on Scafell is of comparable height.Blair, Don: ''Exploring Lakeland Tarns'': Lakeland Manor Press (2003):

Mountain classification

Scafell Pike is a Marilyn summit which automatically makes it a HuMP and a

TuMP The mountains and hills of the British Isles are categorised into various lists based on different combinations of elevation, prominence, and other criteria such as isolation. These lists are used for peak bagging, whereby hillwalkers attempt ...

. Scafell Pike is topologically unusual because the Marilyn qualification contour line (150 metres below the summit) passes around Scafell which is itself a HuMP. Scafell Pike's Maquaco Line also encloses three other TuMP summits, Broad Crag, Ill Crag and Great End.

Summit

The summit was donated to the

National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...

in 1919 by Lord Leconfield "in perpetual memory of the men of the

Lake District The Lake District, also known as the Lakes or Lakeland, is a mountainous region in North West England. A popular holiday destination, it is famous for its lakes, forests, and mountains (or '' fells''), and its associations with William Wordswor ...

who fell for God and King, for freedom peace and right in the Great War 1914–1918 ...". There is a better-known war memorial on

Great Gable Great Gable is a mountain in the Lake District, United Kingdom. It is named after its appearance as a pyramid from Wasdale, though it is dome-shaped from most other directions. It is one of the most popular of the Lakeland fells, and there are ...

, commemorating the members of the Fell & Rock Climbing Club. The actual height of Scafell Pike is a matter of definition or guesswork. The highest point is buried beneath a massive summit cairn over 3 metres high and it is not known how high the fabric of the mountain rises under the cairn. Traditionally the height was given as a very memorable 3210 feet or 978.4 metres. The metric height of 978 metres converts to 3209 feet. Scafell Pike is one of three British peaks climbed as part of the National Three Peaks Challenge, and is the highest ground for over .

Geology

Ordovician and volcanic activity

Scafell Pike consists of

igneous Igneous rock (derived from the Latin word ''ignis'' meaning fire), or magmatic rock, is one of the three main rock types, the others being sedimentary and metamorphic. Igneous rock is formed through the cooling and solidification of magma or ...

rock, including

breccia Breccia () is a rock composed of large angular broken fragments of minerals or rocks cemented together by a fine-grained matrix. The word has its origins in the Italian language, in which it means "rubble". A breccia may have a variety of ...

andesite Andesite () is a volcanic rock of intermediate composition. In a general sense, it is the intermediate type between silica-poor basalt and silica-rich rhyolite. It is fine-grained (aphanitic) to porphyritic in texture, and is composed predo ...

and

rhyolite Rhyolite ( ) is the most silica-rich of volcanic rocks. It is generally glassy or fine-grained (aphanitic) in texture, but may be porphyritic, containing larger mineral crystals ( phenocrysts) in an otherwise fine-grained groundmass. The miner ...

, as well as geothermal

tufa Tufa is a variety of limestone formed when carbonate minerals precipitate out of water in unheated rivers or lakes. Geothermally heated hot springs sometimes produce similar (but less porous) carbonate deposits, which are known as travertin ...

, dating from the

Ordovician The Ordovician ( ) is a geologic period and system, the second of six periods of the Paleozoic Era. The Ordovician spans 41.6 million years from the end of the Cambrian Period million years ago (Mya) to the start of the Silurian Period Mya. T ...

; it is

geologically Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other E ...

part of the Borrowdale Volcanics and along with the other peaks of the

Scafells Image:Annotated Scafell range.jpg, 300px, The Scafell range as seen looking west from Crinkle Crags. (Interactive labels.) rect 23 372 252 419 Slight Side (762m) rect 173 794 560 834 Scafell East Buttress rect 707 787 893 861 Esk Crag or But ...

, forms part of an extinct volcano which was active around 400-450 million years ago.Geology of England and Wales, pp118ff
/ref>

Pleistocene glacial activity

The rugged summit of Scafell Pike was shaped by glacial erosion of the

Last Glacial Maximum The Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), also referred to as the Late Glacial Maximum, was the most recent time during the Last Glacial Period that ice sheets were at their greatest extent. Ice sheets covered much of Northern North America, Northern Eu ...

(~20,000 YA), during which the Lake District was overlain by ice sheets with thicknesses of several kilometers.

Contemporary weathering

The summit

plateau In geology and physical geography, a plateau (; ; ), also called a high plain or a tableland, is an area of a highland consisting of flat terrain that is raised sharply above the surrounding area on at least one side. Often one or more sides ...

of Scafell Pike, and that of other neighbouring peaks, is covered with shattered rock debris which provides the highest-altitude example of a summit boulder field in England. The boulder field is thought to have been caused in part by weathering, such as

frost action Frost weathering is a collective term for several mechanical weathering processes induced by stresses created by the freezing of water into ice. The term serves as an umbrella term for a variety of processes such as frost shattering, frost wedgi ...

. Additional factors are also considered to be important; however, opinion varies as to what these may be. James Clifton Ward suggested that weathering with earthquakes as a secondary agent could be responsible, while John Edward Marr and

Reginald Aldworth Daly Reginald Aldworth Daly (March 18, 1871 – September 19, 1957) was a Canadian geologist. Biography Reginald Daly was educated at the University of Toronto, where geologist A.P. Coleman persuaded him away from teaching mathematics and into Earth ...

believed that earthquakes were unnecessary and suggested that frost action with other unspecified agents was more likely. To the north of the summit are a number of high altitude gills which flow into Lingmell Beck. These are good examples in Cumbria for this type of gill and are also biologically important due to their species richness.

Tourism

Scafell Pike is a popular destination for walkers. There is open access to Scafell and the surrounding fells, with many walking and rock climbing routes. Paths connect the summit with Lingmell Col to the northwest, Mickledore to the southwest, and Esk Hause to the northeast, and these in turn connect with numerous other paths, giving access to walkers from many directions including Wasdale Head to the west, Seathwaite to the north, Langdale to the east, and Eskdale to the southwest. The shortest route is from Wasdale Head, about 80 metres above sea level, where there is a climbers' hotel, the Wasdale Head Inn, made popular in the Victorian period by Owen Glynne Jones and others. According to the

, as of 2014 there were over 100,000 people per year climbing Scafell Pike from Wasdale Head, many as part of the National Three Peaks Challenge.

Survey point

Scafell Pike was used in 1826 as a station in the Principal Triangulation of Britain by the

when they fixed the relative positions of Britain and Ireland. Angles between Slieve Donard in

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label=Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is #Descriptions, variously described as ...

and Scafell Pike were taken from

Snowdon Snowdon () or (), is the highest mountain in Wales, at an elevation of above sea level, and the highest point in the British Isles outside the Scottish Highlands. It is located in Snowdonia National Park (') in Gwynedd (histori ...

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

as were angles between Snowdon and Scafell Pike from Slieve Donard. Given the need for clear weather to achieve these very long-range observations (111 miles to Slieve Donard), the Ordnance surveyors spent much of the summer camped on the respective mountain tops. Scafell Pike was not used as a station in the earlier part of the Principal Triangulation of Britain, even though ''Sca-Fell'' formed one corner of a Principal Triangle.Absence of angles taken from one corner of some triangles was attributed to difficulties of access in the preface of the 1811 report by the Ordnance Survey. The Ordnance Survey's high precision

theodolite A theodolite () is a precision optical instrument for measuring angles between designated visible points in the horizontal and vertical planes. The traditional use has been for land surveying, but it is also used extensively for building and ...

was not taken to the summit until 1841.

Views from the summit

Summer

(Scroll left or right)

Winter

List of summits visible

As the highest ground in England, Scafell Pike has a very extensive view, ranging from the

Mourne Mountains The Mourne Mountains ( ; ga, Beanna Boirche), also called the Mournes or Mountains of Mourne, are a granite mountain range in County Down in the south-east of Northern Ireland. They include the highest mountains in Northern Ireland, the hig ...

Snowdonia Snowdonia or Eryri (), is a mountainous region in northwestern Wales and a national park of in area. It was the first to be designated of the three national parks in Wales, in 1951. Name and extent It was a commonly held belief that the na ...

. On a clear day, the following prominent mountain tops ( Marilyns) can be seen the summit.Computer generated virtual panorama
NorthSouth
/ref> * Dun Rig, , 2 degrees * Binsey, , 2 degrees * Turner Cleuch Law, , 4 degrees *

Dale Head Dale Head is a fell in the north-western sector of the Lake District, in northern England. It is 753 metres or 2,470 feet above sea level and stands immediately north of Honister Pass, the road between Borrowdale and Buttermere. Topo ...

, , 5 degrees * Wisp Hill, , 11 degrees *

Skiddaw Skiddaw is a mountain in the Lake District National Park in England. Its summit is the sixth-highest in England. It lies just north of the town of Keswick, Cumbria, and dominates the skyline in this part of the northern lakes. It is the ...

, , 12 degrees * Roan Fell, , 15 degrees * Knott, , 17 degrees *

Peel Fell Peel Fell is the highest hill in the Kielder Forest region of England, making it the highest hill for several miles in each direction until the Cheviot Hills to the north-east are reached. Because of this, it has enough relative height to make ...

, , 24 degrees * Blencathra, , 28 degrees * The Cheviot, , 31 degrees * Cold Fell, , 39 degrees * Howgill Fells, , 103 degrees *

Bow Fell Bowfell (named ''Bow Fell'' on Ordnance Survey maps) is a pyramid-shaped mountain lying at the heart of the English Lake District, in the Southern Fells area. It is the sixth-highest mountain in the Lake District and one of the most popular ...

, , 105 degrees *

Yorkshire Three Peaks The mountains of Whernside (), Ingleborough () and Pen-y-ghent () are collectively known as the Three Peaks. The peaks, which form part of the Pennine range, encircle the head of the valley of the River Ribble in the Yorkshire Dales National ...

, 36, 44 and , 119 degrees * Boulsworth Hill, , 135 degrees *

Pendle Hill Pendle Hill is in the east of Lancashire, England, near the towns of Burnley, Nelson, Colne, Brierfield, Clitheroe and Padiham. Its summit is above mean sea level. It gives its name to the Borough of Pendle. It is an isolated hill in the ...

, , 138 degrees *

Ward's Stone Ward's Stone is the highest hill in the Forest of Bowland, England. Its flat top hides two trig points nearly a kilometre apart. The western trig point sits atop of large rocks, including one, the Ward's Stone, that is so large it attracts boul ...

, , 142 degrees *

The Old Man of Coniston The Old Man of Coniston is a fell in the Furness Fells in the Cumbria, English Lake District and is the highest point (county top) of the historic county of Lancashire. It is at least high, and lies to the west of the village of Coniston an ...

, , 149 degrees * Winter Hill, , 154 degrees * Snaefell, , 257 degrees * Slieve Donard, , 262 degrees * Slieve Croob, , 268 degrees * Beneraird, , 303 degrees * Merrick, , 315 degrees * Pillar, , 318 degrees *

Cairnsmore of Carsphairn Cairnsmore of Carsphairn is a hill in the Carsphairn and Scaur Hills range, part of the Southern Uplands of Scotland. An alternative name, rarely used nowadays, is ''Cairnsmore of Deugh''. It is the highest hill in the range, and its summit is j ...

, , 326 degrees * High Stile, , 328 degrees * Criffel, , 334 degrees *

Grasmoor Grasmoor is a mountain in the north-western part of the Lake District, northern England. It is the highest peak in a group of hills between the villages of Lorton, Braithwaite and Buttermere, and overlooks Crummock Water. Grasmoor is distingu ...

, , 342 degrees *

, , 351 degrees

Notes

References

External links

* Computer generated virtual panorama
NorthSouth
* Scafell Pike is at coordinates * Scafell Pike Sunny Photos from the West at Wasdale Head and North from Borrowdale by Keswic
Descriptions of the Walking Routes up Scafell Pike
{{Authority control Marilyns of England Hewitts of England Fells of the Lake District Nuttalls Climbing areas of England Highest points of English counties Mountains under 1000 metres Furths Borough of Copeland