Scale to Floutern - Photo Gallery

Movie clip of Scale Force

It felt more like September than August when I got to the National Trust car park just outside Buttermere; there was a definite freshness in the air but it was warm enough for me to set off in tee-shirt and shorts. On the drive to the Lake District I had noticed that the camp sites were full; this is not unusual for a Bank Holiday weekend but the car parks that walkers normally use were empty. I walked back into the village and turned right at the Bridge Hotel, past the Fish Hotel and turned left onto a wide track. After passing through a kissing gate and walking a bit further along the track there is an open gate on the right where a wide path just seems to give access to the fields.

If you walk on the path into the fields for about ten minutes you will come across Scale Bridge; it crosses Buttermere Dubs to give access to the main lake shore path. Turn right and walk along the rough path that runs between the edge of the wooded slopes of Red Pike and the dubs; there has been some attempt to put stepping stones across the wettest sections of the path but it is still wet in those places. You cross over Near Ruddy Beck which hardly seems a big enough flow of water to be named; then Far Ruddy Beck which is wide enough to justify a footbridge.

After crossing the beck an obvious path rises up to the left; the right of way following the shoreline of Crummock Water is much less obvious and much less used. The trees are left behind as you walk through the bracken for a while where the ground is dry; the bracken suddenly comes to an end as you get to wetter ground, after the recent rain it is like to be very swampy. Before I got to the swamp though I came to a large cairn seemingly in the middle of nowhere with apparent significance; cairns don't get built for no reason so I stopped and had a good look round.

I could see a natural looking route below the intake wall and once I put my glasses on I could see a slightly flattened grass route heading towards it. I followed the grassy route and came across a line of cairns until I reach the base of the slope where I turned right to follow a rough but dry path all the way to Scale Force. The walker who had passed me at the cairn was obviously having problems in the swamp; having seen where I was she made her way up to the dry path and sped on her way.

At the footbridge across Scale Beck you can see the waterfall of Scale Force but you don't get a true idea of just how impressive it is unless you walk up by the side of the stream to the waterfall itself. It would be interesting to scramble up the rocks by the side of the lower fall to get closer to the higher one you can see; the rock was very wet and slippery so I resisted the temptation for now. I walked back to the bridge to cross over the beck and spent a couple of minutes deciding how best to get across to the start of the climb to Mellbreak. There is a path rising on the left towards Mosedale but I think I have had problems crossing Black Beck before now and my preferred direct route was completely hidden by the bracken.

I took the lower path, going through a metal gate before following Scale Beck downhill for a short while; I decided to take a short cut and crossed the beck adjacent to a wire fence before I lost too much height. As I crossed the beck I could see that there was a footbridge not much further downstream where I could have got onto the path without climbing up the steep, wet, green slope. Anyway I got to the path without too much trouble and walked uphill in the direction of Mosedale. On the map it looks as though there is a branch to Mellbreak off the main Mosedale path; before you get to the Mosedale path there is a shortcut taking a more direct route. The shortcut is another faint flattened grass route and easily missed but I suppose you could climb anywhere up the grassy slope until the route through the bracken becomes more obvious.

Part way up the slope you get to the first fence of the day; was this one made by a walker-friendly fence builder who made it low enough to step over or is it slippage that has occurred as a result of walkers coping without a stile? At the top of the initial steep slope the bracken temporarily gives way to grass and you can see the faint but obvious path heading up to the southern top of Mellbreak. From this direction you can see the wide-open flatness of Mosedale but you can't tell how wet it is. You can also see the length of Crummock Water and Buttermere; a fine view even with the dramatic cloud cover. The dramatic clouds and the fact that Red Pike had disappeared into mist suggested that the weather was about to deteriorate.

The diminutive cairn at Mellbreak's southern summit disguises the fact that it is at a slightly higher elevation than the more impressive northern end of the hill. It has to be said that the view isn't as good either but it isn't perched on the edge in the same way; nevertheless there are mountain tops on three sides and a lake to the south. The walk along the broad summit ridge of Mellbreak was like being on a hill of two halves; the descent to the shallow central col was grassy and swampy in places but the ascent to the northern summit was a purple haze of heather in bloom.

Walking through the heather the air was filled with its scent and the sound of bees harvesting its pollen; the only problem was the presence of black flies seeking a meal of warm blood. The northern top is much more like a summit, with two cairns each of which had its own good view; the view across Loweswater of the first shower of the day coming in prompted me to put my jacket on. The northern end of Mellbreak is much steeper than the southern end and completely different in character; the peaty ground that supports the heather erodes very easily leaving a deep gully with a slippery, gravel-like surface.

The boulders close to the surface don't erode; where they occur in the path they can be easy obstacles to climb up or awkward slippery objects to get down in the wet and they quickly became wet in the heavy shower of rain. Not that I'm complaining, it's always interesting to see the difference between the descent and ascent of a particular path; the numbers of people ascending (quite a lot) and the number of people descending (one) says it all. Anyway I got down with any real trouble and got to the conifer plantation at the base of the northern slope.

I turned left to walk on the path above the trees and after a while it joined the track coming up to Mosedale from Loweswater; I turned right, almost retracing my steps for a while until I reached a wall corner on the left. I turned left, passed through a rickety gate and followed the wall down towards Mosedale Beck where some stepping stones got me across the water. From there I climbed up the other side on a faint trodden path through grass; the path turned left before reaching the ridge but it's a long enough plod to the summit of Hen Comb without taking the purists route via Little Dodd.

The view of Mosedale from there was quite attractive with the different greens and plenty of water in the beck meandering down towards Loweswater. The path, such as it is, keeps some way below the fence that runs for most of the length of Hen Comb and disappears when you need it most when you reach a wall with no passes. The wall is suitably defended with barbed wire to prevent it from being climbed so the only way is up to the fence; fortunately there was no barbed wire to contend with as my long legs allowed me to step over it without damaging the fence or myself.

Having made the effort to get up to the fence and cross over it I kept climbing up the steep grass until I found the ridge path; it isn't the biggest path in the world but it is obvious enough. I was amazed to see a group of four other walkers ahead of me and astonished to see a party of eight coming down from the summit; it must be a rare occurrence for more than a dozen people to be on Hen Comb at any one time. This mid-section of the ridge is easy walking if you ignore the rain and just before the final, steeper climb to the summit there is another fence to cross which also has a built-in lower section to allow it to be easily stepped over. By the time I reached the summit of Hen Comb the mist had come in; it always seems to do that to me on featureless hills when I would prefer a bit of help with the navigation.

At least these days there is a faint path going south from the summit, it lasts until you really need it to help you to work out where to get across the next fence. In the absence of any clues I just headed in the direction of Floutern Cop and stepped over the fence that hasn't been lowered and walked across wet tussocky grass until I found another flattened grass path. It was getting a bit late and I was wondering whether to finish my planned route or take a shortcut; I didn't fancy climbing the steep slopes on the other side of Floutern Tarn in the mist so I carried on.

Once again I walked past Floutern Cop without climbing it, I don't really think I am missing much. Once you get past it you climb over a stile in a fence; this is where my local knowledge came in useful because there is no obvious way for a walker to get to Great Borne from here in good conditions, never mind in thick mist. I turned left and walked on the right hand side of the fence through fairly swampy vegetation; in this small area there were four dead sheep just to add to my uncertainty about carrying on. Then I got to the final fence of the day; this one hasn't been lowered and there are two strands of barbed wire across the top.

Using both hands to push the strands down a bit and using a “sitting on a wooden fence post” manoeuvre I managed to swing my legs over once again without damage to the fence. All you have to do now is follow the fence up Steel Brow; a steep grassy climb where the fence comes in handy if you need a bit of a pull up occasionally. As the gradient eased the mist became thicker but at least I found a path; it's the kind of path that could get you lost if it was going in the wrong direction and you didn't have a compass and map. Even on a path that is fairly obvious, when you are in mist it is easy to become disoriented so I have learned the hard way to check my compass every few yards.

Keep following the fence and as the gradient eases you get to an area with higher ground either side of it. When I felt that the ground had become flat and bouldery enough I turned right to make a short climb over boulders and found the summit of Great Borne complete with triangulation column and shelter cairn. I made my way back to the path by the side of the fence; the navigation was now easy as the path becomes more obvious but I still needed the reassurance from my compass that I was travelling in the right direction. The descent from Great Borne was a real purple haze, heather in bloom underfoot but nothing else visible in the mist until I reached a shallow col and the heather was replaced by grass.

The mist started to clear and Starling Dodd was gradually revealed ahead; below the mist there was a good view of sunny Mellbreak and Hen Comb with Loweswater Fell just beyond them. By the time I reached the summit of Starling Dodd the mist was back; the traditional stone-built cairn has been given a companion made from old metal fence posts. There was a brief gap in the mist as I descended from Starling Dodd and picked up the faint path in the grass that crossed the shoulder of Little Dodd and then headed up to Red Pike in the mist again.

This path goes around the back of Red Pike summit if you don't deliberately bear left towards it. Eventually I made a steeper climb over rougher ground and I realised I had overshot by a bit but I found cairns and signs of a path before doubling back to the cairns at the summit of Red Pike. In spite of the path only being a few yards away I still used my compass to be sure of finding it; this is not a good place to set off in the wrong direction. I soon recognised the eroded, or should I say shattered, path leading down towards The Saddle; a lot of the looser, more slippery stones have been worn away but it is still steep and awkward.

After slipping and sliding down the steep path you come to a reconstructed path made of red stone that will take you down past Bleaberry Tarn. I decided to try an alternative descent; I didn't go down to the tarn but carried on to The Saddle, the col between Red Pike and Dodd. There used to be a big cairn there but it has disappeared and a smaller one built a few feet away; there are faint paths going left and right from the cairn and I went left. The path is obvious enough and contours around the side of Dodd before starting to descend towards Ling Comb.

The ground is rough; a mixture of heather and boulders but initially at least there is no erosion and no obstacles. The turn right is almost unexpected but it signals the start of steeper ground where the path is more eroded; the peaty ground that supports the heather turns into slippery mud as it starts to wear away and the occasional wet boulders are obstacles to be avoided. This is a lot longer route than I remember when I ascended it, no wonder it took a long time to climb Red Pike. It gets much wetter with swampy ground, muddy holes and flowing water close to the top of Near Ruddy Gill.

Eventually you reach the intake wall but it doesn't get any easier; once you get past the wall the path is wet and muddy as it goes steeply through a mix of heather and bracken. When you reach the trees it still doesn't get any better, you still have the gradient and muddy path but there are plenty of slimy wet tree-roots waiting to catch you out. As I slithered down under one tree trying to keep my footing a low lying branch caught my forehead; I was watching my feet and the branch was above my line of sight. Fortunately it was a small branch and the loss of blood was minimal.

There is a final slither down swampy, grassy ground before suddenly reaching the lake shore path near Far Ruddy Beck; there is no obvious sign of the start of the path I came down. That last mile you have to walk back to the car park always feels a long way.

Andy Wallace 26th August 2006