Crummock Water below a bracken slope with the high fells beyond

Crummock Water

Buttermere’s larger neighbour — once the same lake, now separated by a spread of material the mountain streams brought down over thousands of years.

Once one lake

Buttermere, Crummock Water and Loweswater occupy the long glaciated valley leading north and west to Cockermouth and the coast. Buttermere and Crummock Water were originally one large lake, separated now by material brought down by the mountain streams over thousands of years.

You can walk across that spread of ground between the two in a few minutes, which is the clearest way to see what happened here.

The floor of the Rannerdale valley carpeted blue with wild bluebells under a lone tree

The road along the shore

The much larger Crummock Water is closely followed by the road, with many vantage points looking towards the dramatic slopes of Melbreak, and easy access to the Rannerdale valley — which in early to mid May turns blue with bluebells. There is more about that on the Buttermere valley page.

A wooden stile below a thin waterfall running down a rough grassy fellside

Scale Force

About a mile up Scale Beck, which flows into Crummock, is Scale Force — the highest waterfall in England, with a drop of 120 feet. There are footpaths to it from both lakes.

  • Green fields and hedgerows dropping to Crummock Water with fells beyond
  • A weathered wooden bench on the fellside looking down over Crummock Water
  • The green cone of Rannerdale Knotts rising above bluebells and a drystone wall

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