Red Pike (Buttermere)

Red Pike is a fell in the High Stile range in the western English Lake District, which separates Ennerdale from the valley of Buttermere and Crummock Water. It is 2,476 ft (755 m) high. The direct ascent of Red Pike from Buttermere is very popular and the ridge walk from Red Pike to Haystacks is regarded as one of the finest in the area, with excellent views of the Scafells, Great Gable and Pillar. The fell can be confused with Red Pike (Wasdale), which is only three miles (five kilometres) away but cannot be seen from the summit. Alfred Wainwright in his guidebook The Western Fells comments that the Wasdale Red Pike might be higher but is less suited to the name. Red Pike in Buttermere is given its rich red colouring by the presence of syenite in the rock and subsoil of the fell. This is particularly marked in places where surface erosion has occurred (notably the stony track by the side of Scale Force and the path from Bleaberry Tarn to the summit) and the red colouring of the paths can be seen from some distance.

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Bleaberry Tarn

Bleaberry Tarn is a small natural mountain tarn near Buttermere in the English Lake District. Located at NY165154 (OS Landranger 89), it lies in a corrie below the Lakeland fells of Red Pike and High Stile, backed by Chapel Crags on the ridge between them. The footpath ascending Red Pike from Buttermere skirts its north side. A. Wainwright describes the tarn as "secluded" and suggests it formed in a volcanic crater. The stream Sour Milk Gill descends from the tarn to Buttermere, and is followed by one of the popular footpaths ascending Red Pike. In the 19th century, it was sometimes additionally known as "Burtness Tarn" or "Blebba Tarn".

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High Stile

High Stile is a mountain in the western part of the Lake District in North West England. It is the eleventh-highest English Marilyn, standing 807 metres (2,648 ft) high, and has a relative height of 362 metres (1,188 ft). It is the highest in the range of fells extending north-west from Great Gable towards Loweswater, and together with its satellites, Red Pike and High Crag, forms a trio of fells overlooking the lake and village of Buttermere. On this side are high crags, wild combes and a small tarn, Bleaberry Tarn. High Stile is most easily ascended as part of a traverse of the three fells.

Hiking Landmark

Starling Dodd

Starling Dodd is a fell in the western part of the English Lake District, located between the valleys of Ennerdale and Buttermere, on the ridge between Great Borne to its west and Red Pike to its east. Not visible from Buttermere and rounded in profile, Starling Dodd is a relatively unfrequented top.

Hiking Landmark

Scale Force

Scale Force is considered the highest waterfall in the English Lake District. Opinions vary about how its precise height is calculated, but the total height is normally stated as 170 feet (51.8m). It lies on the stream Scale Beck. The waterfall – or force (a Norse term for waterfall) – is hidden in a deep gorge on the northern flank of Red Pike. It lies south of Crummock Water and is near the village of Buttermere. William Wordsworth described Scale Force as "a fine chasm, with a lofty, though but slender, fall of water", while Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote, "Scale Force, the white downfall of which glimmered through the trees, that hang before it like the bushy hair over a madman's eyes." In her poetical illustration Scale Force, Cumberland., to a painting by Thomas Allom, Letitia Elizabeth Landon writes "It sweeps, as sweeps an army Adown the mountain side, With the voice of many claps of thunder, like the battle’s sounding tide".

Hiking Landmark