Who Was Alfred Wainwright & What Are His Walks?

Anyone who has visited the Lake District and loves their walking will have heard of Alfred Wainwright. His books are still the definitive guides for hiking in the fells and you’ll often see trekkers walking along carrying one of his tomes.

If you’re looking for an introduction to all the wonderful trails that the Lake District has to offer, then the ‘Wainwrights’ are well worth a small investment of your time and money.

Who Was Alfred Wainwright?

Born in Blackburn in 1907, Alfred Wainwright grew up in poverty. His father was a stonemason but also had a problem with alcohol making Wainwright’s early years difficult. Despite these challenges, he managed to thrive in school and was particularly drawn to art. Like many of his peers, Wainwright left education at the age of just 13 and began working as an office junior.

While he had finished school, he continued to study and tried to better himself and later qualified to become an accountant, a career he would follow the rest of his life. At the same time, he also started to write and would regularly produce simple magazines that would be passed around his friends and family.

Hiking in the Lake District

At the age of 16, he married but it wasn’t a happy relationship. Getting a divorce was still considered taboo at the time (indeed, he would stay married until the late 1960s). To escape, he used to go for long walks, and this is where his love of hiking developed.

It wasn’t until 1930, that Wainwright discovered the beauty of the Lake District and he soon after moved to Kendal. Still working as an accountant, he would spend his spare time walking the fells, plotting the different routes. First intended for personal use, he produced 214 guides to the peaks with drawings and maps. It wasn’t until 1955 that he published his first one and since then the works have become as iconic as the Lake District itself.

What Are Wainwrights?

The guides covered what Alfred Wainwright considered fells and they include major hikes such as Scafell Pike, Great End and The Old Man of Coniston.

Over the years these specific routes have come to be known as ‘Wainwrights’ and there’s even a society dedicated to completing them. Organisations such as the Long Distance Walkers Association keep a list of people who have finished a Wainwright and doing so is called peak bagging.

If you buy one of Wainwrights books, you’ll find hand-drawn pictures and photographs as well as a choice of several routes up to the fell summits. When writing his books he split the Lake District into different regions and by far the most exciting are the Southern fells which include Scafell Pike, Bowfell, and the Coniston Range.

For those looking to walk the Lake District for the first time, Wainwright’s guides are still the best and provide a useful smattering of local history and context for the area. They are a great way to get to know the region and enjoy some amazing countryside.