Scale Force
| Scale Force | |
| Cumberland | |
|---|---|
 Scale Force | |
| River: | Scale Beck |
| Fall: | 170 feet |
| Co-ordinates: | 54°32’36"N, 3°18’49"W |
Scale Force is a waterfall in Cumberland by which the Scale Beck plunges 170 feet down the slopes of Red Pike to the dale in which lie Buttermere and Crummock Water, the beck being one of several to discharge itself into the latter.
This is considered the highest waterfall in the Lake District, and while opinions vary about precisely how to measure the fall's total height, it is normally given as 170 feet.
The waterfall is hidden in a deep gorge on the northern flank of Red Pike, which divides that fell from High Stile. The gorge may be found south of Crummock Water and is near the village of Buttermere.[1]
William Wordsworth described Scale Force as "a fine chasm, with a lofty, though but slender, fall of water",[2] 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".[3]
References
- ↑ "Cascades in England". The Saturday magazine (32): 256. December 1832.
- ↑ Owen, W. J. B.; Smyser, Jane Worthington, eds (1974). The prose works of William Wordsworth: Volume 2. Clarendon Press. p. 164.
- ↑ Berkoben, L. D. (1975). Coleridge's decline as a poet. Mouton & Co.. p. 54. ISBN 90-279-3431-2.
