''The Outlying Fells of Lakeland'' is a 1974 book written by

Alfred Wainwright Alfred Wainwright Order of the British Empire, MBE (17 January 1907 – 20 January 1991), who preferred to be known as A. Wainwright or A.W., was a British fellwalking, fellwalker, guidebook author and illustrator. His seven-volume ''Pictorial ...

dealing with hills in and around the

Lake District The Lake District, also known as ''the Lakes'' or ''Lakeland'', is a mountainous region and National parks of the United Kingdom, national park in Cumbria, North West England. It is famous for its landscape, including its lakes, coast, and mou ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. It differs from Wainwright's '' Pictorial Guides'' in that each of its 56 chapters describes a walk, sometimes taking in several summits, rather than a single

fell A fell (from Old Norse ''fell'', ''fjall'', "mountain"Falk and Torp (2006:161).) is a high and barren landscape feature, such as a mountain or Moorland, moor-covered hill. The term is most often employed in Fennoscandia, Iceland, the Isle of M ...

. This has caused some confusion on the part of authors attempting to prepare a definitive list of peaks. The Outlying Fells do not form part of the 214 hills generally accepted as making up the

Wainwrights Wainwrights are the 214 English peaks (known locally as '' fells'') described in Alfred Wainwright's seven-volume '' Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells'' (1955–66). They all lie within the boundary of the Lake District National Park in Cu ...

, but they are included in Category 2B of the ''Hill Walkers' Register'' maintained by the

Long Distance Walkers Association The Long Distance Walkers Association (LDWA) is a British not for profit, volunteer-led association whose aim is "to further the common interests of those who enjoy Long Distance Walking" in rural, urban, mountainous, coastal and moorland areas. ...

The book

The first edition was published in 1974 by ''

The Westmorland Gazette ''The Westmorland Gazette'' is a weekly newspaper published in Kendal, England, covering "South Lakeland and surrounding areas", including Barrow and North Lancashire. Its name refers to the historic county of Westmorland. The paper is now owned ...

''. It was republished by Michael Joseph in 1992 () and a second edition, revised by

Chris Jesty Chris Jesty (born 1942) is a British author and cartographer who revised Alfred Wainwright's ''Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells'' to produce the second edition (2005–2009) of the books, which were originally published in 1955–1966. He us ...

, was published by the Wainwright Society in 2020 (). The first edition is uniform with the seven volumes of Wainwright's ''Pictorial Guides'', with a yellow band at head and foot of the dustjacket. The wording on the cover, in Wainwright's characteristic handwritten style, is: Below this, there is a pen sketch showing an elderly but sprightly walker approaching the summit of a small hill, and Wainwright's signature.

Fells included

The arrangement of chapters in the book is clockwise starting in the south east, with the first chapter devoted to

Scout Scar Scout Scar, also called Underbarrow Scar, is a hill in the English Lake District, west of Kendal, Cumbria and above the village of Underbarrow. It reaches . Scout Scar is the subject of a chapter of Wainwright's book '' The Outlying Fells of ...

, a walk starting at

Kendal Kendal, once Kirkby in Kendal or Kirkby Kendal, is a market town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Westmorland and Furness, England. It lies within the River Kent's dale, from which its name is derived, just outside the boundary of t ...

Town Hall. The list at the back of Wainwright's book contains 110 named fells and summits. Close inspection shows seven of them to refer to other hills in the list, while Newton Fell has two summits. Thus: *

Cartmel Fell Cartmel Fell is a hamlet and a civil parish in the Westmorland and Furness, Cumbria, England. In the 2001 census the parish had a population of 309, increasing at the 2011 census to 329. The village of Cartmel and Cartmel Priory are not in t ...

is the same as Ravens Barrow (page 42). * Hollow Moor is the summit of Green Quarter Fell (page 14). *

Hooker Crag Muncaster Fell is a fell at the far western edge of the Lake District National Park, in Cumbria, England. Muncaster Fell is a long, narrow ridge of land, approximately 1.2 km wide and 6 km long, lying between the River Mite to the nort ...

is the summit of Muncaster fell (page 186). * Newton Fell includes Newton Fell (North) and Newton Fell (South) (page 53). * Potter Fell is the name given to the hill whose summits are Brunt Knotts and Ulgraves (page 8). *

Lord's Seat Lord's Seat is a fell in the English Lake District The Lake District, also known as ''the Lakes'' or ''Lakeland'', is a mountainous region and National parks of the United Kingdom, national park in Cumbria, North West England. It is fam ...

is the summit of Whitbarrow (page 36). * Williamson's Monument is the same as High Knott (page 18). * Woodland Fell is the name of the moor of which Yew Bank and Wool Knott are high points (page 102). The addition of the 12 nameless summits brings the number of Wainwright's Outlying Fells to 116. This is 14 more than the 102 hills listed in John M. Turner's ''New Combined Indexes to A. Wainwright's Pictorial Guides'' (second edition, Lingdales Press, 1984). Turner's list omits two tops explicitly mentioned in the book (St. John's Hill and Newton Fell South) and the 12 nameless summits, and it contains many inaccuracies. A second edition of Wainwright's book, revised by

, was published by

Frances Lincoln Frances Elisabeth Rosemary Lincoln (20 March 1945 – 26 February 2001) was an English independent publisher of illustrated books. She published under her own name and the company went on to become Frances Lincoln Publishers. In 1995, Lincoln w ...

in 2011 (). It maintains the same format but uses red to highlight paths on the route diagrams, and includes updated content (e.g. for Staveley Fell where Jesty says (p. 49) "There must be many people who, encouraged ... by the first edition of this book, have turned left and ... been turned back by an uncrossable fence." before providing an alternative route.)

Highest and lowest

The highest three summits listed by Wainwright are: *

Walna Scar Walna Scar is a hill in the English Lake District, lying just south of a pass of the same name in the Coniston Hills. Its summit at is only slightly higher than the pass. Walna Scar is the highest of Wainwright's ''The Outlying Fells of Lake ...

Black Combe Black Combe is a fell in the south-west corner of the Lake District National Park, England, just from the Irish Sea. It lies near the west coast of Cumbria in the district of Cumberland and more specifically, in the ancient district of Millom ...

* Great Yarlside according to Wainwright; in reality The

Database of British and Irish Hills The mountains and hills of the British Isles are categorised into various lists based on different combinations of elevation, prominence, and other criteria such as isolation. These lists are used for peak bagging, whereby hillwalkers attempt ...

records Wainwright's Great Yarside summit a
hill 2575
, and a nearby higher Great Yarlside summit a
hill 3661
at . A

suggests that Wainwright obtained his figure from a misprint in some editions of the OS maps. The lowest summits are: *

Humphrey Head Humphrey Head is a limestone outcrop situated south of the village of Allithwaite in Cumbria, England. It is whale-back-shaped and accessible for walkers, giving views over Morecambe Bay to Lancaster, Morecambe, Heysham and over the Leven estuary ...

, of which Wainwright says "A fell it certainly is not, being a meagre 172 feet above the sea..." * Cartmel Fell/Raven's Barrow * Newton Fell South

List of summits

The list below has been arranged in alphabetical order rather than height in order to align as far as possible with the list at the back of Wainwright's book. Summits are listed by the name used in the Database of British and Irish Hills, with cross-references from other summit names used by Wainwright to the entries in this table. Each summit appears only once, with height and grid reference. The "page" column allows the list to be sorted into Wainwright's order of chapters, which is roughly geographical, moving clockwise round the area from Kendal in the east.

Map

The map marks the highest point reached on each of Wainwright's 56 walks. The number adjacent to each point gives the page number of the corresponding chapter in the book and the colour indicates the general height of the summit. Clicking a number provides a link to the article about the fell in question.

Notes

References

Sources

* *

External links

Wainwright Walks on the Outlying FellsWainwrights On The Air based on Wainwright's Hills – English Lake DistrictAlfred Wainwright Books & Memorabilia
{{DEFAULTSORT:Outlying Fells of Lakeland, The Hiking books Travel guide books Fells of the Lake District English non-fiction books Walking in the United Kingdom Geography of Cumbria Tourist attractions in Cumbria British travel books Books about the Lake District