Category: Lake District

What would Wainwright do?

There are more stories about Alfred Wainwright than about any other fellwalker. A list of his favourite places would fill volumes. He once though tried to sum up the best places of the lakes in a walk. No one but Wainwright would have thought of inviting his friends for a weekend walking 107 miles across the highest tops of Lakeland, but he did.

The Wainwright Memorial Walk is Wainwright’s own account of the epic walk. It loops over many tops, the best in Westmorland and Cumberland, and with the best views of the shining waters which lie between the fells. It is not a walk I would recommend trying in even a long weekend, but when challenged, the sights seen are spectacular.

There are more stories about Alfred Wainwright than about any other fellwalker.  A list of his favourite places would fill volumes.  He once though tried to sum up the best places of the lakes in a walk.  No one but Wainwright would have thought of inviting his friends for a weekend walking 107 miles across the highest tops of Lakeland, but he did.

The Wainwright Memorial Walk is Wainwright’s own account of the epic walk, named “Memorial” after his death).  It loops over many tops, the best in Westmorland and Cumberland, and with the best views of the shining waters which lie between the fells.  It is not a walk I would recommend trying in even a long weekend, but when challenged, the sights seen are spectacular.

I have so far only walked short stretches of the Memorial Walk, but my eyes are always turned towards the hills with a map and compass ready.

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Books and maps

Ordnance Survey Explorer 1:25 000 maps:

Great Cockup – pride of the Uldale Fells

Let us not forget the gentler fells of Cumberland.  In the north of the Lake District are the Uldale Fells and the Caldbeck Fells, together providing a beauteous finale to the sweep of the mountains.  Here there are no silvery lakes and the dark, foreboding hillsides are less vicious in their aspect.  You may forget these places if you scale mighty Skiddaw to the south, rearing its head over Bassenthwaite (although the last time I climbed Skiddaw was in a storm; the cloud descended upon the hill like a biblical portent and the lake was quite invisible).

Is that not the point though?  There is enjoyment to be had from the open walk, the man on the fellside alone with his own thoughts.  There need not be the challenge, which is no challenge when you know you can do it, nor the threatening peril to life and limb:  the walk and the emptiness are all.

Therefore on occasion look away from the massive massif, cross the Dash Beck and make for the hills which do not throw you off but which are welcoming.  There is none there like Great Cockup, the most famed of them, and one which has the modesty to be named after its own valley.  It is only 1,726 feet; a bairn could climb it.  There then, you may look out at Longthwaite Fell, Meal Fell and the amusingly ill-named Great Sca Fell, Burnt Todd and Knott.

Actually, the latter is 2,329 feet and the highest of the Uldale Fells, so if you are walking above Uldale, is you ambition to achieve a Great Cockup or Knott?

Map