For many walkers, Blencathra is the finest fell of them all. It stands steep-sided and solitary at the edge of Lakeland's northern fells.



The ordinary way up, by Mousthwaite Comb and Scales Tarn, is an intriguingly easy ascent. There are also two Grade 1 scrambles: Halls Fell is a ridge rising rockily for 400m, but nowhere difficult; while Sharp Edge is a narrow are te high above Scales Tarn, one of the finest but also one of the hardest Grade 1 scrambles in Lakeland.



The ridges on either side of Halls Fell are slightly less rocky, but much wilder. The ravines between those ridges are full of scree, and sheep, and steep wet shale. For solitary wanderers, there's Carrock Fell. And there's the Back o' Blencathra.



Youthful enthusiast, rough-handed scrambler, geologist and ghost-hunter, all emerge onto Blencathra's two-kilometre summit ridge. There you stroll on gentle gravel and grass, along the brink of that sudden drop to the south. Beyond Derwentwater and St John's Vale, laid out in panorama, is all the jagged roughness of Helvellyn, the Scafells, and Great Gable. But although Gable and Scafell are excellent hills, the one walkers keep coming back to, again and again, is Blencathra.