Here’s to another 80 years of Wainwright walks

First the apology: Hit the North has been quiet of late. External forces are to blame and thanks for hanging in there.

Normal service will resume from September 1st but, during August, I’m going to bring you some snippets of stories I’ve been working on while juggling numerous deadlines and various other things over the past six weeks or so.

You can read the final cut of these stories this autumn into winter. Follow me on Twitter for the URLs.

Wainwright’s footsteps

Wasdale Head Inn

On a fine day in 1930 a mild-mannered accounts clerk from Blackburn took a bus to Kendal and walked out to Orrest Head above Windermere, Cumbria.

It was a walk that would initiate a life-long affair with the Lake District, spawn a publishing phenomenon and, albeit rather unwittingly, inspire new generations of fell walkers to explore the Lakeland landscape.

I recently went to Wasdale, tucked into the remote southwestern fringe of the Lake District National Park, to mark 80 years since that first fateful walk. I was guided for the day by mountain guide Cathy Colam of Pace the Peaks.

The assignment was to tackle Haystacks, one of the Wainwright’s favourite peaks, from the Wasdale Head Inn and visit Innominate Tarn, just below the summit, where Wainwright himself chose for his ashes to be scattered.

Wainwright famously wrote:

‘For a man trying to get a persistent worry out of his mind, the top of Haystacks is a wonderful cure.’

Was it? Read the autumn issue of walk magazine for the lowdown.

Innominate Tarn, Haystacks

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