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A Great British Miscellany

A Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells

Alfred Wainwright

4: The Southern Fells

This volume of Wainwright's famous pictorial guides covers the highest land in Lakeland (Scafell Pike and Scafell) and some of the best loved with the Old Man of Coniston and the southern flank of Great Langdale.

This is the 50th anniversary edition of Wainwright's original book. This does mean that some of the details are no longer accurate, but once you leave the fields behind and reach the open fells very little has changed. The presence of a route in Wainwright does a lot to secure its future! This book contains one of the few notable exceptions to that rule. Lord's Rake, on Scafell, one of Wainwright's more famous routes, is no longer useable, after a series of rock falls.

Otherwise, as long as you are sensible, and use these books together with a modern map, the Wainwrights are still unbeatable as a guide to the fells. For me Wainwright's sketch drawing of the mountains capture the atmosphere of the fells far better than all but the best photographs.