Alfred Wainwright and The Lake District

Welcome to the 'Wainwright's Lakeland' section of The Lake District dot eu, the site dedicated to the stunning Lake District of northern England.

Probably one of the most well known, beloved, respected and even revered writers coming out of The lakes is Alfred Wainwright. His love of the mountains has been passed from generation to generation of walkers through his little books which are instantly recognisable on any bookstore shelves. He lived from 1907 until 1991 and wrote his Pictorial Guides to the Lakeland Fells between 1952 and 1966. There were 7 of these books in total and in them he described walking over 214 fells. The project was a labour of love which is evident on every carefully drawn page with his descriptive text with notes on the scenery, the routes and the physical landscape plus his own very personal observations. The 214 fells are now affectionately referred to as 'Wainwrights'. So popular did his books and walks, described in minute detail, become that they became the subject of TV programmes. Less well known is the fact that he was the driving force behind the now popular long-distance 'Coast to Coast Walk', 190 miles from St Bees in Cumbria to Robin Hood's Bay in Yorkshire. After his death his ashes were scattered on Haystacks, above Buttermere village, and a memoial to him can be found in the church at Buttermere.

A bright lad, from a relatively disadvantaged background, Wainwright worked and studied for qualifications in accountancy whilst holding down a job. Already a keen walker, his first sight of the Lake District was in 1930 when he visited Windermere on a holiday and fell in love with the Lakeland Fells immediately. In 1941 he was able to take a job in Kendal, where he remained, close to the fells he grew to love with such passion, until retirement in 1967.

His seven guides combine the Lakeland walks and fells into 7 broad groups, Book 1 :The Eastern Fells; Book 2 : The Far Eastern Fells: Book 3 :The Central Fells; Book 4 : The Southern Fells; Book 5 : The Northern Fells; Book 6 : The Northwestern Fells; Book 7 : The Western Fells. The Pictorial Guides are published as images of his original drawings with his hand-written notes and directions accopanying them. Perhaps it is in this immediacy, and seeming contact with the 'real' person who roamed these fells, engendering the feeling that you knew the man personally, that their popularity lies. These little books weren't his only claim to literary fame, though. He wrote over 40 books, including his guide to the Coast to Coast Walk.