The Northern Fells

Book excerpt: One name above all others has become associated with walking in the Lake District: Alfred Wainwright, whose seven-volume Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells, first published in 1955–66, has become the definitive guidebook. Wainwright’s meticulously hand-drawn maps, diagrams and drawings take you up the 214 principal hills and mountains of the Lake District, describing the main routes of ascent from different starting points, as well as lesser-known variants, showing the summit viewpoint panoramas and the ridge routes that can be made to create longer walks. The Northern Fells, Book Five of Wainwright’s Walking Guide, covers an area that encompasses both the gentler gradients of the Uldale and Caldbeck Fells and the spectacular mountains of Skiddaw and Blencathra. This new edition has been comprehensively revised by writer and designer Clive Hutchby, author of The Wainwright Companion. Paths, maps, diagrams and route descriptions have been checked and corrected throughout in this new portable, pocket-sized flexibound format that can easily be packed and carried in a walker’s rucksack.