Summit shelter on the top of Scout Scar. Built in 1912, restored in 2002.
Summits: There are two summits in the chapter: Cunswick Scar and Scout Scar. The former has a spot height at 679′ above sea level on the 1:25,000 OS Map. Scout Scar has a spot height at 770′ north of the summit shelter (pictured above), and a trig column with a height of 751′; the shelter has no height noted on the map, but the height of 764′ given for the fell as a whole by Wainwright would logically correspond to it.
Date bagged: First visit: 24th December 2013 (Christmas Eve), walk 77.
Joe battles the terrain of Cunswick Scar. Looking back south to Scout Scar.
Second visit: 24th June 2017 (walk 130).
Bagged as number: First round: 233 and 234 of the full list of 330 Wainwrights (Cunswick Scar first). [ << Latterbarrow (232) (235) Beacon Fell >> ]
Second round: 104 and 105 of 330 (Scout Scar first). [ << Tarn Crag (Easdale) (103) (106) Hard Knott >> ]
Route of ascent and descent: First visit: Followed the route given on pages 6 and 7 of The Outlying Fells, so came up from Kendal and returned there afterwards. I did Cunswick Scar first.
The edge of Scout Scar. Summit shelter just visible.
Second visit: In truth there is no other way to bag these fells except the other way round, so that is what Joe and I did, doing Scout Scar first. On the way up, took advantage of the ‘short-cut’ via Bradley Field depicted on the map of pages 6-7 of volume 8.
What Mr Wainwright says (from page 3 of volume 8): “West of Kendal a sloping shelf of limestone rises at an easy gradient for two miles and then suddenly collapses in a long and spectacular cliff, the ground falling away sharply through a fringe of woodlands to the flat pastures of the Lyth Valley, once an inlet of the sea….
Cunswick Scar summit cairn
“The escarpment and the views are rewards enough, but the walk up from Kendal has merit too. It is on limestone, pure limestone without intrusions of other rocks, and is attended by the joys inherent in limestone: firm dry turf, here interspersed with gorse and juniper, heather and bracken; scree and clints that make tinkling music under the feet, and interesting formations, all allied to glorious views.”
What I say: Scout Scar is definitely worth a visit, particularly on a day of sunshine and shadows, as I hope the pictures on both the walk 77 page and walk 130 page prove. The views of the Lyth Valley were really excellent (see below) and while the vistas of the main Lake District were not as good as they were from, say, Latterbarrow, the fell definitely sustained the standards set already by the Outlying Fells for views. Definitely worth time on a visit to Kendal.
The Lyth Valley, from Scout Scar
These are also arguably the two most logistically accessible Wainwrights. Three hours to do the walk depicted in the book (with a bit of extra time to get to and from the railway station) is ample time. On walk 130, Joe and I were away from Hebden Bridge for less than nine hours all day including a long pub lunch. Add it to the ‘Half-Day classics’ list therefore.
The 214 Wainwright fells: without a car 
[…] in the whole Lake District and walked from Kendal. Read about it on the walk 77 page and the Scout Scar […]
[…] good idea to get in something straightforward and logistically easy: the result was walk 130, up on Scout Scar above Kendal, the first chapter described in The Outlying Fells. An easy ramble up on the dry […]