Blencathra

Loved by everyone who steps foot on it, Blencathra is a mountain every hillwalker needs to climb. Here are the best ways to reach its 868m summit.

Also known as Saddleback, Blencathra is popular for good reason. It’s the first ‘proper’ mountain you’ll see as you approach the Lakes down the busy A66 road from Penrith, lurching upwards to your right in a tangle of steep buttresses and shadowy gullies. It’s also an accessible peak that also offers pulse-quickening challenges whatever time of the year you climb it.

There are so many routes to its true summit at Hallsfell Top that it’s hard to know where to start, so we’ve picked out six of our favourites to kick things off for you. They vary from steep but simple strolls from the roadside, to one of England’s most notorious ridge scrambles, plus a longer approach that takes in the glorious remoteness of Lakeland’s Northern Fells.