Blencathra is one of the first mountains you’re likely to come across when coming into The Lake District if coming from Penrith direction. Its iconic shape lends itself to have many different walking routes for you to try and whilst many are straightforward routes, it also has some of the best ridge walks (so I’m told, I’ve yet to do these ones). It’s so iconic that it has its own short film – ‘Life of a Mountain: Blencathra’ by Terry Abraham.
However, if you don’t fancy a ridge walk or if the weather simply isn’t on your side there are a couple of other all weather routes you could try so you can still reach the summit. Blencathra at 868 metres (2,848 feet) isn’t huge but it can pack a punch and if you have a half day to spare then it’s the perfect mountain for you.
Blencathra has in total 12 routes on which you can reach the summit and 6 tops Blease Fell, Gategill Fell, Hallsfell (the highest point of Blencathra can be found at the top of Hallsfell), Atkinson Pike, Doddick Fell and Scales Pike, which is no wonder why Wainwright devoted 36 pages to this mountain, more than any other.
Via Blease Fell
Considered one of the easiest routes up Blencathra. Your starting point is in the small village of Threlkeld where there is a small car park and the route runs alongside this and easy to follow. The first section is fairly gentle and only becomes steep at Knowe Crag, once you’ve tackled this section it’s an easy walk to the summit.
Via Scales Fell
Your starting point is a Scales, where you’ll find a fairly large car park just off the A66 and a pub. Once parked up head to the route that heads North East. This route is again a nice easy route which takes you via Scales Tarn and from here you can see the more challenging Sharp Edge, at the Tarn you can decide to take the scramble up Sharp Edge to the right or the easier route via Scales Fell to the left and onwards to the summit on a very easy path to follow.
Via Doddick Fell
Starting once more in Scales, but this time head South-Westerly towards Doddick Fell. Doddick Fell offers a good balance of experiencing a ridge walk but without the sharp drops and tricky scrambling sections that come with tackling Sharp Edge or Hallsfell Ridge. This particular route comes in as 3rd favourite from Wainwright, which isn’t bad going considering the number of available routes to be found on Blencathra.
These 3 routes are some of the easier ways to reach the summit of Blencathra and are achievable in half a day, but if you’re looking for more of a challenge then clearly Sharp Edge and Hallsfell Ridge are the routes for you.
