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

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Clarke, Anna (9 January 2014). "Updating the Wainwright walking books will be a labour of love for Clive". Westmorland Gazette . Retrieved 2 June 2014.

There are various options for climbing High Street from Mardale, but Small Water path is probably the most straightforward. 4. Glaramara 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.For each fell, Wainwright includes the preferred routes to the summit, carefully detailing each step with his own idiosyncratic descriptions and hand-drawn maps. The guide has been updated twice since it was first published (mostly to take account of the changing conditions of the fells), but it remains pretty much as Wainwright himself wrote it. More than a half-century later, the guide remains a detailed love letter for the Lake District, its careful notations a marvel of precise observation. 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). Complete the Wainwright's in 36 Walks Thirty-six circular walks covering all the peaks in Alfred Wainwright's Pictorial Guides to the Lakeland Fells.

When I first started winter fell walking with Dan and his family, we went up Fairfield,” says Karen. “It was actually the first time I had ever been out and about in the winter. I almost didn't know that you were allowed to go up proper mountains at that time of year. It was just very memorable for that! There was snow everywhere, and I think that changed my view of walking in the mountains.” 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. In his guide to the Lakeland Fells, Alfred Wainwright describes Aira Force as Gowbarrow Fell’s great attraction:

2. Catbells (451m)

Wainwright Society Aims". The Wainwright Society. Archived from the original on 3 May 2015 . Retrieved 21 April 2015. Using these you can easily see where each walk goes and which Wainwright each walk 'bags' so you can chart your progress and plan your next walk with ease. Davies, Hunter (2013). Wainwright: The Biography. Hachette. ISBN 9781409139669 . Retrieved 20 October 2013.