The highest mountain in England

Ivan, Jane and Otto on the summit of Scafell Pike

The highest mountain in England is Scafell Pike. Standing at 978 metres or 3,209 feet above sea level it sits in the county of Cumbria in the western lakes. On our tour of England what else would we do on our 26th wedding anniversary but climb the highest mountain in England and take our little sausage dog Otto with us too? We had reached the top left hand corner of England and so wanted to celebrate. Before we describe the journey to the top we will let you know how we got there. 

In our last blog we had covered 21 counties of England out of our challenge to sleep at least one night in all the 48 counties of England. We carried on north and in Lancashire we enjoyed castles and coasts: 

Clitheroe castle

Blackpool beach, just be careful driving on the sand 😅

Bring me sunshine ☀️ 

Beautiful sunsets on Morecombe beach

Further north and a little to the east the North Yorkshire dales were a haven for walking and waterfalls: 

Aysgarth falls

Cauldron falls

West Burton

Above Settle

Victoria caves walk

Waterfalls were a favourite with us all 😀

We wild camped on the North Yorkshire moors with the sheep and grouse for company.

We carried onto the furthest county on the west coast of England: Cumbria and the Lake District. We stocked up on the biggest bar of Kendal mint cake you could buy! 

We stopped at Kendal castle and brought the Kendal mint cake, we needed the energy! 

The night before the toughest hike of our lives we stayed at Shore road, Drigg on the west coast and next to a nuclear waste dump. We were the only ones there....

On the day of our 26th wedding anniversary we parked at Wasdale head and got ready to walk to the top of the highest mountain in England

The clouds were low as we started early morning

We soon started to see beautiful views of Wast water below us

Once through a gate we found the beck that we had to cross to continue our way. 

Some of the path was so steep you felt you were going to fall over backwards 

Two hours of hard hiking later and the summit is in view behind us

The higher we get and the windier and colder it gets. We were lucky as the visibility was good so we had amazing views.

After 3 hours we made it to the top and climbed to a large man made carn. For about 20 seconds Otto was the highest dog in England 😂, and he walked all the way. He motivated others on the journey as people were saying “well if a sausage dog can do it I can”. 

The way down was much harder. The loose shale on the top third was too much for Ottos paws and Ivan carried him down until we reached easier ground. 

We felt so proud of each other and Otto and had a great day celebrating our anniversary challenging ourselves to summit a mountain. The climb and descent was very hard and the views were amazing. It’s a beautiful part of the Lake District and we felt very grateful to be on this trip and able to feel fit enough to have this adventure. Living our best life, it’s good to feel alive 😀. 

We hope you enjoyed reading our blog. 25 counties to go! Stay safe everyone and don’t forget to have fun xx.