Walking the Wainwrights: 64 Walks to Climb the 214 Wainwrights of Lakeland

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Orrest Head holds a particularly special place in the repertoire of any Wainwright Bagger. This is the spot where the great man himself is said to have first fallen in love with the area. It also happens to be one of the easiest mountains to climb in the Lake District! Smith, Bob (7 May 2022). "Runner John Kelly sets new record for completing round of Wainwright fells". Grough . Retrieved 9 May 2022. Coast walk tops trek to Everest". BBC News. 23 November 2004. Archived from the original on 4 May 2009 . Retrieved 22 October 2006. The east-west route along Blencathra is also a gentle option, taking you along the main ridge. 2. Castle Crag

Welcome to the online version of the Database of British and Irish Hills (DoBIH)". HillBagging . Retrieved 8 November 2018. We hope this gives you lots of ideas for your next family Lake District adventure. Don't forget to book a perfect holiday cottage for your stay and whilst you’re here, you might also be interested in reading the following: Part of the Southern Fells, Glaramara is a tranquil hill despite being in the midst of some of the Lake District’s busiest hotspots such as Ullswater and Borrowdale. The Wainwright Walks pay homage to the late Alfred Wainwright, a fell-walker, guide book author and illustrator who has inspired many people to explore The Lakes by foot. For some, the challenge is climbing the highest peaks in the shortest time, whilst for others, getting outside, maybe for the first time; and taking in the beautiful scenery, peace and quiet, and sheer scale to get some perspective. How Many Wainwrights Are There?The second series, broadcast in 2007, included Catbells, Crinkle Crags, Helm Crag, Helvellyn from Patterdale, High Street from Mardale and Pillar. A six-part series entitled Wainwright Walks: Coast to Coast was broadcast on BBC Four in April and May 2009 and on BBC2 from 21 July 2009, [16] [17] and presented by Julia Bradbury. This is a particularly pleasant walk from the centre of Grasmere village and is likely to be a quieter affair than the previous, popular Loughrigg walk. The views, however, are as just as impressive, and you may just get them all to yourself! The walk begins down a lane next to the Emma’s Dell café signposted “Allan Bank”. Continue down the lane and cross a cattle grid into Allan Bank and when you reach the fork in the road take the lane to the right and follow it until you see a signpost for “Silver How” on the left. Pass through a gate into a field and bear left to follow the wall. Climb to where the field narrows and enter the narrow stony gulley. After about 100m climb out and continue on up to another gateway. Go through onto the open fellside and bear left. Continue on the grassy path above a gill and past some spikey juniper bushes, (crush a berry to release the smell of gin!). Veer left and after around 200m you reach Wray Gill. Bear left on a narrow path to drop down into it and cross the river. Once on the other side follow the path across the plateau to the obvious hill ahead. Your destination is marked with a summit cairn. From here you can enjoy a beautiful 360-degree view of the Langdale Pikes, Grasmere, Helm Crag and the surrounding countryside. A full description of this walk and a route map can be found below.

By the mid-1980s Wainwright was a TV personality; he featured in three television series for the BBC, presented by farmer and broadcaster Eric Robson and devised, directed and produced by Richard Else. But to save you time sifting through his catalogue of routes, we thought we’d bring together our top ten Wainwright Lake District walks, each offering something slightly different, so that, whatever your ability or taste, you’ll be sure to find something to suit you. 1. Blencathra Choosing the most appropriate routes was surprisingly difficult and took a great deal of time and effort to achieve. But the overriding emphasis is on the quality of each of the 59 walks we have chosen to ensure that you'll get the true flavour of the Lake District from every angle, every corner and every view point. Little Mell Fell is one of the smallest of the 214 Wainwright fells in the Lake District. If Little Mell Fell had not been included in Wainwright’s guide to the Lakeland Fells, it may be completely ignored by visitors to the Lakes.

Wainwright Society Aims". The Wainwright Society. Archived from the original on 3 May 2015 . Retrieved 21 April 2015. First published in the Westmorland Gazette in the 1950's, Alfred Wainwright's Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells comprises seven volumes listing 214 mountains and tops - each with its own chapter. It is an ambition of many people to reach the summit of all 214 of these lakeland fells. Davies, Hunter (2013). Wainwright: The Biography. Hachette. ISBN 9781409139669 . Retrieved 20 October 2013.

It’s possible to avoid some of the scramblings on the Hall’s Fell route, and the views across The Dodds towards Helvellyn from the summit are reward enough to keep you motivated. Summiting all of the Wainwrights is a popular form of peak bagging in the Lake District, along with the Birketts. Because both lists are based on historical books, unlike, for example, the Munros, their constituents remain fixed, regardless of revisions to height or other metrics. In this regard, they are similar to the Scottish lowlands, Donalds. There are 214 Wainwrights, of which 209 are also classed as one of the 541 Birketts. Wainwrights cover a wide range of heights, from major mountains such as the highest Wainwright, Scafell Pike at 978 metres (3,209ft), to Castle Crag, the smallest Wainwright at 290 metres (951ft). Wainwright did not state any rules about what should be included in his guides, choosing instead to note his walks according to his favour and their relevance in the landscape, never himself considering the summiting of all of them to be an important accomplishment for others. Sitting under 300m in height, Borrowdale’s Castle Crag features a famous cave, a war memorial and a spooky old quarry, which adds a sense of intrigue to the climb. And like many of the smaller Wainwrights, you are more than rewarded at the summit with views to savour in every direction. All of these walks offer straightforward routes with no scrambling to negotiate, no river crossings to navigate and no intimidating scree to concern yourself with and can all be achieved by anyone with a basic level of fitness. Even though they may be slightly lower in altitude than their more grandiose relatives, these fells are all punching above their weight when it comes to breath-taking panoramas and awe-inspiring views along with that priceless sense of achievement when reaching the top. You can expect magnificent views, patches of woodland and easy grassy paths. It makes for a beautiful walk that will be manageable for most.

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Karen and Dan have been running, walking and orienteering in the Lake District fells for over three decades now. "It's been part of my whole life," says Dan. We caught up with the Parkers to ask for five of their favourite Wainwrights routes. Wainwright One: Gowbarrow Fell (481m) Despite being a low fell, surrounding views mean Gowbarrow can feel quite mountainous. Photo: Getty High Street, so-called for the Roman Road that once traversed the summit, is a popular choice among walkers. It’s long, flat and great for a brisk march, unencumbered by obstacles. That said, it isn’t a bad walk to the summit. At just 3.4 km, this isn't a long walk. However, you shouldn't underestimate the steep climb. What's more, the ground around the bottom of the fell can be very muddy and boggy under foot. These ‘Wainwrights’ have now become the definitive list for anyone wanting to visit the summits of all the fells in the Lake District,” writes endurance athlete Steve Birkinshaw, who ran all of the Wainwrights in 2014, in the introduction to ' Peak Bagging: Wainwrights'. The new guidebook, written by Karen and Dan Parker (sister and brother-in-law of Steve) and published by Vertebrate Publishing is a complete guide to climbing all 214 of Wainwright’s Lake District fells in the most efficient way - with 45 routes included in the book.

A walk can be what you make it – you can walk the dog, walk the kids to school or simply go for a walk in your lunch break; whatever it is you’re always winning. For those who want to add that little bit more; a slightly more strenuous, time-consuming adventure, Alfred Wainwright has done the hard work for you. All you have to do is walk. You've also got Aira Force at the bottom, which is one of the most popular waterfalls in the Lake District. So it's a great place to go, both as a short walk, or as part of a longer trek. In the book we do Gowbarrow and then a couple of the other, adjacent lower hills - Great Mell Fell and Little Mell Fell. But Gowbarrow is the nicest in the area. The Lake District’s most famous fell-walker was Alfred Wainwright, the accountant-turned-writer whose seven-volume Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells, published between 1955 and 1966, remains the guide of choice for most fell-walkers. In it Wainwright painstakingly documents 214 ‘official’ peaks, meaning any mountain over 1000 feet (304m) – the only exception being Castle Crag, which comes in a tad shorter at 950 feet (300m).

2. Castle Crag

He “raises his proud and venerable head to the sky,” writes Wainwright, “his tears are shed quietly into Low Water and Goats Water, two splendid tarns, whence, in due course… find their way into Coniston’s lake, and there bathe his ancient feet.” What you need is a series of circular walks that connect all 214 Wainwrights together in a series of 59 day walks that includes all the latest route information but that are not exhaustingly long so anyone can complete them and enjoy the experience. Between 2005 and 2009, all the Pictorial Guides were updated for the first time, to take account of changed conditions on the fells. The revisions were made by Chris Jesty, and the publishers used an imitation font of Wainwright's hand lettering to make the alterations look as unobtrusive as possible. The most notable changes were the inclusion of photographs of the Lake District by Derry Brabbs on the front covers, rather than the drawings that were on the covers of the originals, and footpaths shown in red on the maps. These revised versions are titled 'Second Editions'. Revised editions of Wainwright's other Pictorial Guides, A Coast to Coast Walk, The Outlying Fells of Lakeland, Pennine Way Companion, Walks in Limestone Country and Walks on the Howgill Fells were published by Frances Lincoln between 2010 and 2014, with the amendments again being made by Chris Jesty.