Book Four

The Southern Fells

The Southern Fells area is described in Book Four of Alfred Wainwright’s Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells. The area is bounded in the west by Wast Water and in the east by Grasmere and Windermere. It extends north as far as Stonethwaite in Borrowdale and south to Coniston. The area contains 30 Wainwrights, including the highest peaks in the Lake District such as Scafell Pike, the highest mountain in England. Classic walks in this area, include the Coniston Fells, and routes to Scafell Pike from Wasdale Head, Seathwaite, and Langdale. Wainwright describes the Southern Fells as being, “…the highest, the roughest and the grandest in Lakeland …Progress on foot across these arid wastes is slow and often laborious, but there is an exhilarating feeling of freedom and sense of achievement on the airy ridges poised high above deep valleys.”