Scale Force is considered the highest waterfall in the English Lake District. Opinions can vary about how its precise height is calculated, but the total height is normally stated as 170 feet (51.8m), with a single drop of water of 120 feet (36.6m) and several smaller drops. It is on the stream Scale Beck.
The waterfall - or force (a Cumbrian term for waterfall) - is hidden in a deep gorge on the northern flank of Red Pike (Buttermere). It lies south of Crummock Water and is near the village of Buttermere.
William Wordsworth described Scale Force as "a fine chasm, with a lofty, though but slender, fall of water", 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".