After he completed his 7 Pictorial Guides and was getting on a bit, Alfred Wainwight turned his attention to the lower hills lying on the fringes of the Lake District National Park. The result was the book “The Outlying Fells of Lakeland”. Unlike the main 7 Pictorial Guides, the Outlying Fells are covered as a series of walks, with some walks visiting several summits, some of which are nameless. This list is gleaned from that book. I’m not currently specifically targetting completion of these, but as my main Wainwright quest spreads out from the central fells, it is inevitable that some of these come into play. So I’m recording which ones I’ve done and any that I can mop up, then great. The list does have some interesting anomalies though:
- Black Combe at 600m would have qualified as Wainwright no. 131 (out of 214) if it had been included, and indeed the outlying fells between Black Combe and Eskdale arguably should have been included in the main guides due to their stature. But it seems that these didn’t fit into Wainwright’s planned pattern, and so were excluded. The nearest Wainwright to these, Green Crag, at 489m, just serves to highlight this discrepancy, as does the fact that Black Combe is included in the Trail 100 (and rightly so, in my opinion). Personally, I view the whole group of outlying fells between Eskdale and Coniston as the 8th (lost) group of Wainwrights, being the South Western Fells. I am aiming to complete all of these, and indeed have completed 21 of the 34.
- Walna Scar, at 621m, is technically a mountain (Nuttall) and part of the south western ridge extending from Dow Crag. This also seems out of place as an outlying fell.
- Humphrey Head, a mere 53m high, isn’t even in the National Park! And it’s not that high either.
All in all, I love the Outlying Fells that I’ve done as much as the “proper” Wainwrights and see them as in no way inferior to them.
So far I have completed 22 of the 116 fells. Here’s the list in order
| Name | Height(m) | Height(ft) | Grid Ref | Date | Classification |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Walna Scar (1) | 621 | 2037 | SD257963 | 17/04/2007 | NOB |
| Black Combe (2) | 600 | 1969 | SD135854 | 03/07/2010 | T5MPOB |
| White Combe (3) | 417 | 1368 | SD154862 | 03/07/2010 | OB |
| Stoupdale Head (4) | 472 | 1549 | SD151873 | 03/07/2010 | OB |
| Buck Barrow (5) | 549 | 1801 | SD151910 | 04/07/2010 | 5OB |
| Kinmont Buck Barrow (6) | 535 | 1755 | SD146909 | 04/07/2010 | OB |
| Burn Moor (7) | 543 | 1781 | SD151924 | 04/07/2010 | OB |
| Whitfell (8) | 573 | 1880 | SD158929 | 04/07/2010 | 5MPOB |
| The Pike (9) | 370 | 1214 | SD186934 | 05/07/2010 | OB |
| Hesk Fell (10) | 477 | 1565 | SD176946 | 05/07/2010 | POB |
| Stainton Pike (11) | 498 | 1634 | SD152942 | 05/07/2010 | OB |
| Yoadcastle (12) | 494 | 1621 | SD156952 | 05/07/2010 | OB |
| Woodend Height (13) | 487 | 1598 | SD156954 | 05/07/2010 | OB |
| White Pike (Birkby Fell) (14) | 442 | 1450 | SD150956 | 05/07/2010 | OB |
| The Knott (Stainton Fell) (15) | 331 | 1086 | SD143951 | 05/07/2010 | OB |
| Burney (16) | 298 | 978 | SD260858 | 28/03/2011 | PO |
| Blawith Knott (17) | 248 | 814 | SD260884 | 29/03/2011 | O |
| Tottlebank Height (18) | 236 | 774 | SD269885 | 29/03/2011 | O |
| Wool Knott (19) | 223 | 732 | SD272896 | 29/03/2011 | O |
| Beacon Fell (20) | 255 | 837 | SD278907 | 29/03/2011 | PO |
| Yew Bank (21) | 207 | 679 | SD262909 | 29/03/2011 | O |
| Heughscar Hill (22) | 375 | 1230 | NY488231 | 18/09/2012 | OB |
Numbers in brackets after the name shows the count as each one was bagged (e.g. 17 indicates my 17th for this particular list). (R) indicates a repeat of a summit previously counted. (Fail) indicates a failed attempt to summit. Names, heights and grid refs taken from v11 of the Database of British Hills.
The classification codes used above are:
4 = 4000er
3 = 3000er
T = Trail 100
U = Munro
H = Hewitt
N = Nuttall
5 = Dewey
M = Marilyn
P = HuMP
W = Wainwright
O = Wainwright Outlying
B = Birkett
