The walk starts from the National Trust's Lake Head car park (CA20 1EX) at the head of Wast Water, the biggest car park in the valley. National Trust members park free. Otherwise it's £7 for up to 2 hours, £8.50 for up to 4 hours or £10 for the day, and charges apply at all times, so for this walk of 4 to 5 hours get the all-day ticket. There's very little phone signal in Wasdale and the car parks can't always take card or phone payments, so bring change, or set up the JustPark app before you go. There's a large toilet block, and no overnight parking. Postcodes here cover a wide area, so follow the signs rather than the satnav. Check the latest prices here.

In summer the Wasdale Explorer bus runs from Ravenglass to Wasdale Head; in 2026 it ran at weekends and bank holidays from 2 May to 31 August, at £3 for an all-day ticket. Check the National Park website for next year's dates.

The top of Scafell Pike once belonged to Charles Henry Wyndham, 3rd Baron Leconfield. His family home was Petworth House in Sussex, but he also owned large estates in Cumberland, including Cockermouth Castle and England's highest mountain.

In 1919, the year after the First World War ended, Lord Leconfield gave the summit to the nation and put it in the care of the National Trust, in memory of the men of the Lake District who died in the war. A plaque recording his gift is set into the summit cairn near the trig point. Its words remember the men "who fell for God and King, for freedom, peace and right in the Great War 1914–1918".

The war is remembered all around this walk. Great Gable, two miles to the north across the valley, carries a better-known war memorial put up by the Fell & Rock Climbing Club. Down at Wasdale Head, a small pane in the south window of St Olaf's Church is etched with Napes Needle on Great Gable, as a memorial to the club's members who lost their lives in the war, and a silence is kept in the church at 11AM every Remembrance Sunday.

Wasdale Head likes to say it has the highest mountain, the deepest lake, the smallest church and the biggest liar in England. The liar was Will Ritson (1808–1890), landlord of the Wastwater Hotel, the inn now called the Wasdale Head Inn, who gave himself the title.

Ritson's tall tales became famous. In one, he found a wounded eagle near the inn and nursed it back to health in his hen house. One night a hound got in; the eagle was unharmed, but five months later the dog had a litter of puppies with wings. In another, Lake District turnips grew so big that people hollowed them out to use as cow sheds. His inn was also the centre of the early years of British rock climbing, made popular by Victorian climbers such as Walter Parry Haskett Smith and Owen Glynne Jones.

His memory lives on in the World's Biggest Liar competition, held each November at the Bridge Inn at Santon Bridge. Entrants get five minutes to tell the biggest, most convincing lie they can, with no props or scripts, and politicians and lawyers are not allowed to take part. The comedian Sue Perkins became the first woman to win, in 2006, and in 2013 the prize went to Mike Naylor from Wasdale, nephew of the fell runner Joss Naylor, for a tale about Wassie, the monster of Wast Water.