Newlands Valley

It seems appropriate that, on what would have been Alfred Wainwright’s 113th birthday, to post a photo of a Wainwright, one of those 214 Lakeland fells listed in the seven volumes of his Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells. Well, here we have a pair of them, Catbells and Maiden Moor. Grumpy, stubborn, reclusive and eccentric, Wainwright illustrated his books with superb pen and ink drawings of the fells which are still bestsellers today and have done much to popularise the Lake District. He was born, in Blackburn, Lancashire in 1907. In 1952, he began the task of walking every fell in Lakeland which took him 13 years, travelling on foot or by public transport from his Kendal home, as he never learnt to drive. His ashes are scattered on Haystacks.

The photo was taken from just above Uzzicar, a strange name for a farm but which is evidence of Viking settlements in the 9th-century.