The 10 best Wainwright walks in the Lake District

Telegraph

04-05-2025

In 1955, Alfred Wainwright's debut Lake District walking guidebook was published. Few realised the moment's significance or that it was the first step towards Wainwright's improbable rise to God-like status in Lakeland.
Born into poverty in Blackburn in 1907, Wainwright's world turned on a dime in 1930. Aged 23, he climbed his first Lakeland fell – and the experience 'cast a spell that changed my life'.
He spent the next few decades meticulously climbing, drawing and writing about the Lakeland fells. By 1966 his masterpiece was finished. Part guidebook, part love letter to the mountains, the seven-book series of Pictorial Guides to the Lakeland Fells eulogised 214 peaks with poetic descriptions and beautiful landscape drawings.
The series became the bible of Lake District fellwalking – a definitive work of unparalleled cultural influence. But, how many Wainwright walks are there? Seventy years later, climbing all 214 remains a popular peak-bagging challenge. I've completed four rounds of Alfred's list and each journey has been life-affirming. Thousands of other walkers feel the same.
But which are the best Wainwright walks? From iconic peaks to family-friendly hills, here are 10 unmissable routes:
1. Haystacks
In Wainwright's words: 'For a man trying to get a persistent worry out of his mind, the top of Haystacks is a wonderful cure.'
Haystacks is Wainwright's eternal resting place. After his death in 1991, his ashes were scattered on the shores of Innominate Tarn, a small body of water to the south-east of the summit, nestled on wonderfully rugged ground between the valleys of Buttermere and Ennerdale. With his characteristic humour and stoicism, Wainwright joked in his book Fellwanderer: 'And if you, dear reader, should get a bit of grit in your boot as you are crossing Haystacks in the years to come, please treat it with respect. It might be me.'
Grieved to not include Haystacks in his list of the best six fells, by virtue of its inferior height, Wainwright wrote that 'for sheer fascination and unique individuality' Haystacks is the 'best fell-top of all – a place of great charm and fairytale attractiveness'. This classic route climbs from Gatesgarth to the summit via Scarth Gap col and returning via Innominate Tarn and Warnscale Beck.
Stay nearby
Kirkstile Inn (01900 85219) in Loweswater has double rooms from £145, including breakfast.
2. Dove Crag
In Wainwright's words: 'Here, in small compass, is a tangle of rough country, a maze of steep cliffs, gloomy hollows and curious foothills gnarled like the knuckles of a clenched fist, with the charming valley of Dovedale below and the main crag frowning down over all.'
In May 1955, Wainwright's first walking guidebook – A Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells: Book One, The Eastern Fells – was published. He described it as 'one man's way of expressing his devotion to Lakeland's friendly hills', adding 'it is, in very truth, a love letter'. Dove Crag was the first chapter Wainwright wrote for this book, and the first tentative step in what would become a seven-book labour of love lasting over a decade.
Famed for its rock climbing routes and much-photographed Priest's Hole cave, Dove Crag is commonly ticked off as part of the classic Fairfield Horseshoe route from Ambleside. But that is to miss the mountain's best aspect. Start from the Patterdale side, near Brothers Water, and you'll get 'a much more interesting and intimate approach, the sharp transition from the soft loveliness of the valley to the desolation above being very impressive', as Wainwright put it.
Stay nearby
Another Place The Lake (017684 86442) has double rooms from £250, including breakfast.
3. Orrest Head
In Wainwright's words: 'Orrest Head, for many of us, is 'where we came in' – our first ascent in Lakeland, our first sight of mountains in tumultuous array across glittering water, our awakening to beauty ... here the promised land is seen in all its glory.'
In a Sliding Doors moment of life-altering significance, a 23-year-old Wainwright travelled by bus from Blackburn to Windermere in 1930. He climbed Orrest Head, a dinky 781ft hill above the town, but the experience proved monumental. 'It was a moment of magic, a revelation so unexpected that I stood transfixed, unable to believe my eyes. I had seen landscapes of rural beauty pictured in the local art gallery, but here was no painted canvas; this was real.'
Confusingly, Orrest Head isn't one of the official 214 Wainwrights. Instead, it's included in Alfred's lesser-known list of 116 Lake District 'infants'. In The Outlying Fells of Lakeland, Wainwright documents 'the foothills of Lakeland, the minor eminences around the perimeter, the little bumps we never bothered about before'. This makes Orrest Head a quick and easy bimble for the whole family, accessible from Windermere train station.
Stay nearby
Lindeth Fell Country House (015394 43286) in Bowness-on-Windermere has double rooms from £199, including breakfast.
4. Helm Crag
In Wainwright's words: 'It gives an exhilarating little climb, a brief essay in real mountaineering, and, in a region where all is beautiful, it makes a notable contribution to the natural charms and attractions of Grasmere.'
Helm Crag is undoubtedly one of the Lake District's best small fells. It's a delightful out-and-back climb from the chocolate box village of Grasmere – the best of Lakeland distilled into a few hours of hiking hedonism. Sprightly grandparents and intrepid toddlers can get involved too, so it's an outing for the whole family, ideally with a pack of Grasmere Gingerbread – a moreish delicacy baked to a secret recipe in the village since 1854.
But you'll be forgiven for not quite making it to the true summit, not least because Wainwright himself allegedly wimped out of it. Soaring with ferocity from Helm Crag's grassy crest is a fear-inducing slab of angled rock known as The Howitzer, a craggy pinnacle marking the official highest point. It's a perilous scramble to the top. Some courageous walkers will overcome the climb; but, like Alfred, it's more than acceptable to give it a miss – you can still say you've conquered Helm Crag.
Stay nearby
The Forest Side (015394 35250) in Grasmere has double rooms from £319, including breakfast.
5. Great Gable
In Wainwright's words: 'Great Gable is a favourite of all fellwalkers, and first favourite with many. Right from the start of one's apprenticeship in the hills, the name appeals magically. It is a good name for a mountain, strong, challenging, compelling, starkly descriptive.'
This ancient pile of lava and volcanic ash is a mountain that means many different things to many different people. To some Great Gable is the birthplace of British rock climbing, where in 1886 tweed-wearing WP Haskett Smith first conquered Napes Needle, a teetering 20-metre rocky spike piercing out of Gable's southern flanks. To others, it's the centrepiece of the Great Gift war memorial, a vast tranche of mountainous land endowed to the nation as a permanent shrine to the fallen heroes of the First World War. To many more, it's simply an amazing place to go walking.
There are numerous ways to tackle Great Gable, but this route from Borrowdale is one of the best. The ascent via the wonderfully-named Sourmilk Gill, as well as Green Gable and Windy Gap, is a lung-busting climb requiring good hill legs, while the descent by Styhead Tarn and Stockley Bridge is similarly tough yet achingly pretty.
Stay nearby
Lodore Falls Hotel & Spa (017687 77285) in Borrowdale has double rooms from £203, including breakfast.
6. Pillar
In Wainwright's words: 'It dominates the sunset area of Lakeland superbly, springing out of the valleys of Mosedale and Ennerdale, steeply on the one side and dramatically on the other, as befits the overlord of the western scene.'
Towering above the head of Ennerdale with a bulky grandeur, Pillar is an imposing sight – the kind that entices and terrifies at the same time. The name, however, is a little misleading. Shaped less like a slender, vertical pillar and more like a broad, sprawling mass, this rugged mountain is none the less not a place for the faint-hearted, particularly if you take on this adrenaline-inducing route.
Known as the High Level Route and Shamrock Traverse here the terrain is a halfway house between hiking and scrambling. Sure-footedness, a head for heights and competent navigational skills are essential, in order to avoid the 'difficulties and dangers' all-round, as Wainwright put it. But stick safely to the traverse and you'll get up close and personal with Pillar Rock, a gigantic buttress jutting out of the mountain's north face like a gothic cathedral of crag and cliff – a mesmerising scene of Lakeland brutality.
Stay nearby
The Woolpack Inn (01946 723230) in Eskdale has double rooms from £110, including breakfast.
7. Crinkle Crags
In Wainwright's words: 'Crinkle Crags is much too good to be missed. For the mountaineer who prefers his mountains rough, who likes to see steep craggy slopes towering before him into the sky, who enjoys an up-and-down ridge walk full of interesting nooks and corners, who has an appreciative eye for magnificent views, this is a climb deserving of high priority.'
At the end of his series' final instalment – Book Seven, The Western Fells – Wainwright listed the 'finest half-dozen' mountains in the Lake District, selecting the best of the best based on 'the attributes of mountains; height, a commanding appearance, a good view, steepness and ruggedness'. Alongside Scafell Pike, Bowfell, Pillar, Great Gable and Blencathra, Crinkle Crags made the cut. This may surprise some, but Wainwright was unwavering in his assessment, describing the summit of Crinkle Crags as a 'scene of desolation and rugged grandeur equalled by few others'.
From the charming valley of Great Langdale, this route ascends via Great Knott and descends via The Band. In between is a 'crinkly' succession of ups and downs, an undulating spine of craggy towers and rocky depressions. It's superlative walking terrain and the perfect way to earn a post-hike pint (or two) at the much-loved Old Dungeon Ghyll Hotel.
Stay nearby
Brimstone Hotel (015394 38014) in Great Langdale has double rooms from £408, including breakfast.
8. Cat Bells
In Wainwright's words:'Cat Bells is one of the great favourites, a family fell where grandmothers and infants can climb the heights together, a place beloved.'
Cat Bells is an incredibly popular fell, attracting hordes of Keswick tourists daily. But somehow the crowds don't detract from the enjoyment. Cat Bells is a place for young, old and everyone in between – all rejoicing in the beauty of Lakeland.
Sweeping aesthetically above Derwent Water with a distinctive profile, Cat Bells is a little fell with big features: a taste of scrambling, a domed summit and eye-watering views over Borrowdale. Car parking is a nightmare, so the easiest (and most fun) option is to cruise across the lake from Keswick to Hawse End on a Keswick Launch ferry. The walk's ascent and descent are both steep, but the return along the Cumbria Way shoreline path is almost as delightful as the summit itself.
Stay nearby
The Cottage in the Wood (017687 78409) in Braithwaite has double rooms from £380, including half board.
9. Place Fell
In Wainwright's words: 'It occupies an exceptionally good position in the curve of Ullswater, in the centre of a great bowl of hills; its summit commands a very beautiful and impressive panorama.'
Often labelled England's most beautiful lake, Ullswater is not short of first-rate walking routes. Hallin Fell, on the southern shoreline, is an excellent viewpoint. Sheffield Pike, to the west, is blessed with the perfect angle to ogle the lake's sweeping curves, while Gowbarrow Fell, on the northern shore, combines with Aira Force waterfall to make a delightful short outing. Or, if you're feeling more energetic, the 20-mile Ullswater Way loops the lake in a two or three-day journey of Lakeland splendour. But, of all Ullswater's charms, Wainwright believed Place Fell was the cream of the crop.
This route from Patterdale, just to the south of Glenridding, climbs easily enough to Boredale Hause before veering north for Place Fell's summit. The return leg via Hare Shaw, the lakeshore path and Side Farm completes a lovely loop. As Wainwright put it: 'One cannot look long at Place Fell without duly setting forth to climb it. The time is very well spent.'
Stay nearby
The Inn on the Lake (017684 82444) in Glenridding has double rooms from £165, including breakfast.
10. Blencathra
In Wainwright's words: 'This is a mountain that compels attention, even from those dull people whose eyes are not habitually lifted to the hills.'
The second highest of the northern fells, behind mighty Skiddaw, Blencathra is none the less number one in the hearts and minds of hikers in these parts of Lakeland. Soaring above the village of Threlkeld, to the east of Keswick, Blencathra dominates the skyline, with its five southern buttresses – scarred by four deep gullies – forming a remarkable façade of mountain. Many intrepid walkers will be drawn, however, to the northern side of the fell, where the barbed, razor-like arête of Sharp Edge serves up an iconic grade one scramble.
But Wainwright was more enamoured by the southern aspect, describing the Hall's Fell ascent of Blencathra as 'positively the finest way to any mountain-top in the district', with an 'exhilarating' climb that satisfyingly 'scores a bulls-eye by leading unerringly to the summit-cairn'. Suitable only for confident scramblers, this route climbs the craggy spine of Hall's Fell before returning via the gentler ridge of Doddick Fell – one of Lakeland's most adventurous half-day outings.
Stay nearby
Inn on the Square Hotel (017687 73333) in Keswick has double rooms from £130, including breakfast.