Alfred Wainwrights

[Veggibear]

Can anyone tell me which of his books would be the best to cover the Kendal, Windermere area of the Lakes.

Thanks

[johntrevor]

FELLWANDERER gives lots of solid advice about walking in this area but as the title suggests concentrates on the fells and not the lakes. It may help a little.

[vehelpfulguy]

I assume you mean which of the Wainwright Pictorial Guides would be best.

If you look at a map of the lake district you will see that Kendal is right on the edge of the Lakes and has no large hills round it so it was not even included by Wainwright in the Pictorial Guides.

And it has to be said that even Windermere is still rather on the edge of the lakes so there is almost near Windermere in his books.

Book 2 - The Far Eastern Fells covers the area NORTH EAST of Windermere (the high street range)

Book 1 - The Eastern Fells covers the area NORTH of Windermere (Hellvellyn etc)

Books 3 and 4 (Central Fells and Southern Fells) cover the area WEST of Lake Windermere, but you are now starting to get a fair way from Kendal and Windermere.

When he was getting older he did write a book called the Outlying Fells, these were all the smaller hills that he could not be bothered to walk up when he was younger, and it does have a LOT of walks in the south east area around Winderemere and Kendal, see here:

http://www.tesco.com/books/product.aspx?R=9780 711222342

[vehelpfulguy]

Sorry, my third sentence should read....

almost NOTHING near Windermere in his books

[vehelpfulguy]

Not sure if you are new to Wainwright, or to the lakes, or both, but if you are staying near Windermere you should do Orrest Head.

This was Wainwrights first ever climb in the lakes and there is a small plaque on the top saying that it was Wainwrights first climb.

http://www.virtual-lakes.co.uk/winOrrestHead.j pg

The starting point is Windermere train station and to be honest it is a very easy walk (20 minutes or so), but on a clear day the views are amazing, as the picture above shows.

As you can see, I am a great fan of Wainwright and the lakes (and have been for years) so if you want any more advice on the lakes then feel free to ask.

[Veggibear]

Thank you for your answers.

My mum and dad stay there at my aunty's caravan (not far from Kendal) and my dad showed an interest in Wainwright - I think he had a recent aniversary which was on tv and I thought it would be a good present for my dad's birthday (and father's day is coming up).

Dad's are so difficult to buy for (well my dad is!)

Thanks again for your help.

[vehelpfulguy]

It is 100th anniversary since Wainwrights birth and there has been a few programs on TV in the last couple of weeks.

Not sure how much you want to spend but this would make a GREAT present, a boxed set of the 7 Wainwright guides.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wainwright-Anniversary -Boxed-Pictorial-Guides/dp/0711224617/ref=pd_b bs_sr_1/203-7030313-0659101?ie=UTF8&s=books&qi d=1177320233&sr=8-1

There are also some Wainwright DVDs that may interest him (these are not the programs that have been on TV recently but programs shown on TV a few years ago that had Wainwright in them)

http://www.stridingedge.com/store/wainwright_d vd.html