Mend Our Mountains: Scafell Pike in the Lake District
England’s highest mountain has been a constant headache for its custodians, the National Trust and Fix the Fells, as ever-increasing numbers seek to top England’s highest summit. Yet a poignant anniversary has highlighted the continuing need for large-scale projects to repair and revamp its slopes and pathways.
19 July marks a sobering but important date. On Peace Day 1919, Lord Leconfield gave the summit of Scafell Pike to the nation, as a memorial to those who had died fighting ‘the Great War’. It seems unlikely that he or anyone else could have predicted that one hundred years later, 100,000 people a year would visit the summit of Scafell Pike, to glory in England’s tallest mountain.
Though the memory of two World Wars lives on, the majority of pleasure-seeking walkers and hikers today probably have no idea that they are stepping onto what has been called ‘the world’s greatest war memorial’.
100,000 pairs of boots a year make a big impact, and the state of the paths on Scafell Pike has long been a cause of concern for Fix the Fells, the partnership organisation set up by the National Trust and others to maintain and protect the Lake District’s ever-popular path network. Since the 1980s, some level of work on Scafell Pike has been required every year, and the rate of use and erosion has only accelerated.
WATCH: Mend our Mountains Lake District
Nowadays a team of four rangers ostensibly covers the Wasdale and Eskdale area, but in reality their primary area of work is invariably Scafell Pike. An annual helilift brings in stone for repairs (a measure that is unique to the situation on Scafell Pike) and the work is near-constant. Nowhere else in the UK, except perhaps on Snowdon, are such challenging conditions present when balancing the need to conserve the natural environment with accessibility to the public.
That balance is only achievable with substantial levels of investment, and the upkeep of England’s highest mountain was a big priority within the BMC’s Mend Our Mountains: Make One Million campaign. £100,000 for 100,000 walkers and 100 years - it seemed appropriate! The money that thousands of donors provided was boosted by substantial sums from Smartwool (via the European Outdoor Conservation Association) and HF Holidays Pathways Fund.
When combined with generous contributions to Fix the Fells, we were able to hit the £100,000 target earlier this year, and this money has already been put to good use as part of the rolling programs of works.
Find out more
To find out more about the work, check out Fix the Fells and if you are impressed by what Mend Our Mountains achieved and want to keep supporting this work, do consider donating to the BMC’s charity, the Access and Conservation Trustdonating to the BMC’s charity, the Access and Conservation Trust, to help us make projects like this possible in the future.
- Popeth sydd angen i chi ei wybod am y Parc Cenedlaethol newydd arfaethedig yng Ngogledd Cymru
- BMC Winter Lecture Series: Bristol
- BMC Winter Lecture Series: Manchester
- BMC Winter Lecture Series: Bangor
- Youth Climbing Series Grand Final
- Did you know? You can donate free of charge to the BMC this Christmas
- Basic Child Safeguarding Training | Thursday 10th April
- Climbing Equipment Safety
- Our 6 favourite sunrise & sunset routes for National Hiking Day
- Top 6 accessible routes for wheelchairs, mobility scooters and prams
- The British Mountaineering Council welcomes the British Boulder and Lead Championships to Manchester
- Five reasons to go trekking in Europe
- Julie Smith appointed as Head of Finance at the British Mountaineering Council
- Best 6 climbs at Carn Gowla, Cornwall, according to our Local Access Rep
- Your Climbing Counts | Survey Results
- Bouldering outdoors for the first time
- Five historic walking routes to explore Scotland in autumn and winter
- 5 favourite Exmoor walks using the new Great Bradley Bridge
- Time Together: Lucy Garlick and Natalie Stilwell
- Basic Child Safeguarding Training | Monday 13th January
- Basic Child Safeguarding Training | Tuesday 18th January
- Basic Adult Safeguarding Training | Monday 20th January
- Basic Child Safeguarding Training | Wednesday 19th March
- Women in Adventure Film Workshop at Kendal Mountain Festival
- BMC Community hike at Kendal Mountain Festival with Komoot
- December BMC Open Forum
- Clubs Open Forum
- Promoting your club using social media | Club Support Webinar
- Mental health, nutrition & exercise during menopause
- BMC x ClimbOut Queer Climbing Session at Kendal Mountain Festival
- Top 5 walks & climbs around the newly repaired footpaths at Haytor Rocks, Dartmoor
- Youth Climbing Series Grand Final to be Hosted in Leeds
- A new, exciting idea for your Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) days with the BMC
- Gear Maintenance for Climbing and Mountaineering Clubs | Club Support Webinar
- Gellid osgoi traean o'r sbwriel sydd ar yr Wyddfa gyda Chynllun Dychwelyd Ernes
- Your burning questions answered with Auntie Gravity | Summit Magazine
- BMC welcomes four new members to the Members' Council
- Laura Needham appointed as Head of Performance at the British Mountaineering Council
- Alpine Gems | Dent Blanche, South Ridge
- Happy 100th Gwen Moffat!
- BMC North West Area Hill Walk | Saturday 30th November
- 5 things you didn’t know about hill walking’s most important plant
- Sphagnum moss planting | 15th November
- Climbing in the sun: Steve McClure's ultimate winter destinations
- BMC South Wales Area Meeting
- The future of wild camping on Dartmoor: Supreme Court to decide on historic right
- BMC Huts Seminar
- Aggarwal, Losey Sail, and Musson Medal in Arco at IFSC Paraclimbing World Cup
- 14 reasons why we can't ignore footpath erosion
- BMC volunteers remove 2,765 items of litter from Yr Wyddfa
Related Content
Mend Our Mountains Articles
Help the BMC's Access & Conservation Trust raise FREE donations with all your online shopping this Christmas with Easyfundraising
Mend Our Mountains Articles
This Sunday is National Hiking Day, celebrated on 17 November, encouraging people to get outdoors and enjoy the beauty of nature through hill walking. Use the BMC's hiking route ideas to inspire you and our mapping discounts and freebies to navigate your way.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
With a new all-terrain, electric mobility scooter in the Cotswolds Natural Landscape thanks to Mend Our Mountains support, we celebrate the rise in accessible outdoor routes with a top six across the UK.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
Part-funded by the BMC, the new Great Bradley Bridge in Exmoor opens up access to the famous, 117-mile Two Moors Way long distance walking trail. Here are our five favourite walks that take in this new crossing.
Cerdded Bryniau Newyddion
With almost 2,000m of footpath around Haytor Rocks in Dartmoor newly repaired, thanks to BMC Access & Conservation Trust funding from the Mend Our Mountains campaign, here are our top 5 walks and climbs in the area.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
The BMC’s Access & Conservation Trust (ACT) is pleased to announce a seventh project within the Mend Our Mountains campaign for 2024.
Hillwalking Destinations
It's no easy feat, but with a little advice, organisation, knowledge and determination, climbing the Wainwrights is doable for almost anyone. This beginner-friendly guide aims to teach you about the fells and how to plan for and complete them.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
One of the biggest projects ever supported by Mend Our Mountains has hit its huge fundraising target, enabling repairs to be made to badly damaged sections along the South Downs Way.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
The dramatic skyline of the Great Ridge walk connects the summits of Lose Hill and Mam Tor in Derbyshire’s Hope Valley. Heavy footfall left the path in a badly eroded state and work to repair the damage to the path started in March this year, and has seen 500 metres of the most serious damage along the path repaired to protect the surrounding landscape and bordering habitat.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
A kilometre-long stretch of one most heavily eroded footpaths in the heart of Bannau Brycheiniog (The Brecon Beacons) has been fixed, thanks to £12,100 of funding from the BMC’s Mend Our Mountains crowdfunding campaign.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
In the last three years Eryri (Snowdonia) National Park Authority have been very active in working on a number of lower level bridleways around Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon) and more recently started work on the bridleway connecting Capel Curig to Crafnant. While some of these trails have given opportunities to link communities and provide access to lesser-abled users, the scale and nature of the works on some of the routes that pass through some wild and remote areas has also surprised many users.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
The money raised through the Mend Our Mountains: Make One Million appeal has started going into work on the ground, after a dramatic helicopter airlift helped path repair work to get underway on Yorkshire’s highest peak.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
Commuting with crampons, hard outdoor labour, and spending 120 hours a week with your colleagues - we speak to a mountain path repairer to find out more about the highs and lows involved in this vital job.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
Mend Our Mountains: Make One Million has helped leave a lasting legacy on some of the highest peaks not only in Scotland, but in the whole of the British Isles.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
The Nuns Cross Path is used by more than 30,000 walkers and 10,000 mountain bikers, as well as horse riders, disabled ‘trampers’ and many others each year - it is a shining example of the accessible but wild landscape Dartmoor can be. But a combination of extreme weather, like the storms of winter 2014, and erosion damage had taken its toll over the years. In stepped the BMC's Mend Our Mountains campaign.
Hillwalking Destinations
Watch five great walks in the Lake District, including family inspiration, lesser-known routes to popular summits and dog-friendly fell walking.
Mynediad & Chadwraeth
Seven things you always wanted to know about path repair (but were too afraid to ask)
Mynediad Dysgwch
BMC volunteers from the Get Stuck In programme joined Fix the Fells last month in Wasdale on Lingmell Breast, one of the main routes up to Scafell Pike. They spent the day helping to maintain part of this hugely popular footpath up to England’s highest mountain.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
Mend Our Mountains is back for 2024 with six incredible access and conservation projects across England and Wales. This project is funded by the BMC’s Access and Conservation Trust charity (ACT) and we would like to thank all our members, supporters and volunteers for making vital work like this possible. Here’s what is happening this year as a result of your funding, including volunteering events you can get involved with.
For most people, walking all the Wainwrights is a challenge spread over many, many years. But James Forrest decided he wanted to up the ante, turn it right up to 11, go all out and walk them all in one outing and entirely self-supported. Is he mad or magnificent? You decide.
Your BMC membership gets you a six month trial to AllTrails worth £17.94 - that’s plenty enough spare for a box of posh choccies and a bottle of wine for your loved one this Valentine’s Day. And where better to devour said chocolates and guzzle said wine than on one of our top five hikes on that romantic getaway you’ve definitely already planned for them… Don’t worry, we’re here to help - take them on one of these lovely walks on AllTrails: