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This is how I got on walking Wainwright’s remote Lakeland route. I’ve also included links to my gear list for the walk, a review of all the gear I used, how it performed on the walk and whether I would take it again.

The 194 miles of Wainwright’s remote Lakeland route is one thing, but the 43,582ft of ascent and the remoteness of the route make it a real challenge.

Great weather all 10 days

I did alter Wainwright’s route slightly to reduce the road walking and make the route even more remote.

Wainwright’s remote Lakeland walk

I walked Wainwright’s remote Lakeland walk in April 2021, completing it in 10 days and wild camping every night. I was unsupported and carried everything needed from the start. This was deliberate as I didn’t know if I’d be able to buy supplies or use pubs. Covid-19 restrictions meant a lot of the pubs were still closed, and the route doesn’t pass many shops for resupply.

Setting off carrying my Granite Gear Blaze 60 with 12 days food.

I chose this walk because it’s remote, so it would be quieter and less walked. I didn’t want to make the Lake District any busier than it already was going to be with the recent lifting of the lockdown. It also was an opportunity to promote the lesser-walked parts, so others can find this solitude. The route took me to parts of the Lake District that I had never thought of exploring, and it was well worth it.

Great views every day

Completing Wainwright’s remote Lakeland walk was also the start of my training for the 3000km Te Araroa walk in New Zealand, which I’m planning to tackle in the next year or so.

What is Wainwright’s remote Lakeland walk?

Wainwright’s remote Lakeland walk is a 312km (194m) route around the quieter and less-walked parts of the Lake District. In total, it has 13,284m (43,582ft) of ascent and a high point of 784m (2,572ft).

Like many great ideas, Wainwright originally came up with the route n a pub, whilst drinking with some friends. It’s circular so it doesn’t matter where you start from, and accommodation options are possible every night. Or, like me, you can wild-camp all the way around, often in spectacular locations.

The route does a full circuit of the more popular parts of the Lake District’s main peaks, passing over some lesser-known and outlying peaks. I changed Wainwright’s route slightly to lessen the road walking and make the walk even more remote. And one evening the weather was too good to follow his route which descend into the valley. Instead I stayed high and climbed over High Street instead, which was my highest point.

Slight deviation from Wainwright’s remote Lakeland walk over High Street

How challenging is it?

Wainwright’s remote Lakeland walk is challenging on many levels, requiring good navigation and fitness. It’s best to have done some other long-distance walks before tackling this one.

Another great wild-camping spot

I walked the route in perfect conditions and missed out about 15 miles and 3000ft of ascent. However, it still took me 10 days of hard walking. I was carrying all my food and gear from the start, though, which would have slowed me down initially.

There is a fair amount of rough pathless walking and high, remote route-finding. This would be extra challenging in bad weather. Many of the ascents and descents are very steep, and also could be tricky in rough weather.

Steep descent past waterfall was interesting

Many times during the walk I found myself comparing it with the challenging Cape Wrath Trail. Wainwright’s Remote Lakeland walk is harder than Wainwright’s Coast to Coast, the West Highland Way and the Pennine Way for instance. I’ve done some challenging walks and this was right up there with the best of them.

The lovely Screes Inn at Nether Wasdale, Seascale, Cumbria

Wainwright’s remote Lakeland route would make a great training walk for the Cape Wrath Trail. You’re only missing the Midges but will get a pub everyday.

The route

Whilst looking at the map and planning this walk, some of the route didn’t inspire me. My intention was to change Wainwright’s original route to reduce the road walking and make it more interesting for wild-camping.

Nice walk around the lake

But when I set off, I soon realised that Wainwright definitely knew what he was doing. I saw amazing views of the Lake District that I hadn’t expected at all. I’d climb a relatively small hill or turn a corner, and suddenly I’d get an unexpected view and realise the reason for going that way.

Wainwright’s remote Lakeland walk passes through some lovely farmland

The route is extremely varied. I was never bored of the scenery as it was always changing. I walked through some lovely farms and villages, with typical Lakeland buildings and sheep farms. Then I was passing pristine grassy fields of newly-born lambs, and an hour later I could be up on a high ridge with expansive views of the mountains all around. The route also followed woodland paths full of bluebells and circled around a lake.

Wainwright’s remote Lakeland walk

Passing pubs

There is a surprising amount of high-level, exposed walking on the route. However, every day it drops into a valley (or 5) and passes a pub or hotel. Most of these were shut when I walked the route due to Covid-19 restrictions, so I bypassed a number of these sections. Sometimes I chose to stay high because of the good weather, and other times I just wanted to save a few miles of road walking.

Lakeland pub

I passed two pubs open during early part of the walk, and stopped for meals and a few pints in both. Later I also passed a horse box that had been converted with a pizza oven, so had a surprise pizza. This was especially welcomed as I’d been looking forward to a meal in the pub in the village, but it turned out to be shut.

To save money, I mainly lived on dehydrated meals during the walk, so I really appreciated a meal when I could find one. This shouldn’t be a problem in future as the pubs will all be open. The Lake District does do pubs well; there’s plenty of them.

Pudding for breakfast, why not

Wild camping

For the first 6 days, I had views of the sea from my wild camping spots. On one night I was lying in my sleeping bag drinking coffee, watching the sky change colour as the sun set over the Isle of Man. Beautiful.

Please read my 11 wild camping rules

Most nights I was camped high level, where I found it easy to find a camping spot with great views. Often there wasn’t a soul about. There were only two nights at lower levels where I struggled to find a secluded spot, and it meant I had to walk a few miles more than I would have liked. One particular night I had to walk with my head torch on past 10pm, up past Scales onto a ridge, before finally camping in a lovely spot. All good fun and it definitely added to the challenge! Luckily it was a lovely clear night, walking under a starry sky.

Final thoughts

I loved this walk and will probably do it again, probably the other way round just for the challenge and different views. It’s up there with the best wild-camping trips I’ve ever done. I often found myself comparing it to the Cape Wrath Trail and thinking how good the walk was. Best of all I had the remoteness and the challenge but with the added advantage of no midges!

Wainwright’s remote Lakeland walk

I hope this has given you an insight into Wainwright’s remote Lakeland walk. If you would like to read more about it, please message me and I’ll write a daily account of my walk if there is interest.

Wainwright’s Remote Lakeland walk

Further reading

My gear list for this walk

A review of all the gear used on this walk

LDWA Wainwright’s Remote Lakeland

5-day winter wild camping circuit of the Lake district

Cape Wrath Trail – April

How I plan a successful long distance walk

My 11 wild camping rules

Wildwalkinguk is a blog run by myself in spare time, and I pay for its running costs myself. I do have some Amazon affiliate links and adverts on the site. If you click on these adverts or links and buy what you need (it doesn’t have to be the item I’ve linked to), the company will pay a small commission to us. This money goes towards the costs of hosting the blog. I would be extremely grateful if you could consider using our links when you next need to buy something from our advertisers. Alternatively, you can buy me a coffee here. Thank you so much for your support. Mark.

UPDATE: I received this message that may be of interest to you. Thankyou John for taking the time to write it.

 I hope you don’t mind me pointing out that Wainwright had already died before the Remote Lakeland Walk was devised and had only a very tenuous link to it.  It was indeed first thought of in a pub, the Santon Bridge Inn.  At the turn of the century there Eric Robson in the company of David Powell-Thompson and Joss Naylor, was recalling his TV series of Wainwright Walks with the man himself, in particular of his last Lakeland walk with him on Haystacks in appalling weather.  Wainwight described to him the view from there, from memory, because there was nothing at all to see in the hill fog.  He mentioned that “you should be be able to see Grike in the far west” and Eric Robson said to him that he had never heard of it.  AW replied “then you should go there, you’ll have it all to yourself” and the germ of an idea of a walk over remote fells was sown with him.
During the conversation in the bar Eric threw down a challenge to his companions to devise a walk around the outlying summits, starting and finishing for instance in Penrith, and including of course, Grike!  David Powell-Thompson duly researched the route with some input from Joss Naylor and walked its length before Eric and he, with a film crew, produced a video of the walk and later a highly entertaining account of their experience in a booklet – After Wainwright.  Hope this background information is useful for you.

 All the best, John

9 Replies to “Wainwright’s Remote Lakeland Walk (312km)”

  1. Hello Mark, Well done and always great to read your stories. I think I saw your original posts on this walk. I want to do a similar route, some of it like yours, but more like the trident walk and some of my own bits thrown in. Not sure yet when it will be though. April looks good, Spring and Autumn are always best in the Lakes.
    All the best
    Alan

    1. Hello Alan
      Thank you for your message. I like the look of the Trident walk and it’s always good to make it your own. Planning your route is half the fun of the walk.
      Best of luck
      Mark

  2. That’s very interesting thank you. Very lightweight tent you have – is it sturdy enough for the wild of Scotland? I’m planning on doing the cape wrath way and wonder if you have done it and what route you took?

    1. Hi Allison
      I’ve walked the Cape Wrath Trail north to south and also most of it during my Dover to Cape Wrath walk in 2020. I’ve written about both walks on my site. I’ll be walking it again this April and I’m still deciding which tent to take, the decision will be at the last minute depending on the 10 day forecast. If its not looking like strong winds I’ll take the Tarptent Notch but if it is I’ll be using my Nordisk Telemark 1. I used this on my Lejog walk and it always feels indestructible. The Notch is ok but too expensive to take risks with, I need to keep it good as I’ll hopefully need for my Te Araroa walk.
      Thanks for your message and good luck with your walk and the midgys, if you need some company on it let me know. I’m always looking for excuses to walk it. Both routes are amazing and hard to choose between them, usually comes down to the weather. Message me with questions always happy to help.
      Mark

  3. Thanks Mark. I’ve managed to find your north to south cape wrath way walk – a great read and very useful to me as I have been wondering how arduous the trackless bog parts are. I’m not planning on doing it all but thinking of walking from Camas Luinie to Ullapool where there are wilderness areas I really fancy, and some bothies in case of rain. Felt reassured by your descriptions of the Berneas beallach path join up and getting from maol bhuide to loch calavie. (I’ll be going south to north). Hopefully the weather will be good for navigation. Thanks for the offer of company for some of it – if I was younger it would be great to walk with you but my pace is much much slower than yours, and despite the loneliness of walking alone (especially evenings I find when setting up camp) I’m sure like me you really appreciate the freedom it gives and that great sense of being alone in wild places. But if you’re heading north to south this April I may even pass you on the path- I’m planning early May, keen to avoid the midges.
    Allison

  4. Mark:

    Thank you for this. I had never heard of this route. My wife and I were able to summit all 214 last April (we did it over four months since we are from America). I was trying to come up with a solo hike for this fall.

    This route sounds great. I would probably stay in lodging each night (more comfortable and a chance to spend money in Cumbria).

    1. Hi Matt

      I was carrying a lot of food and camping gear, you will probably do the route a lot faster if you are staying in accommodation. Or at least it will allow you time to leave the route to get to your accommodation. Well done completing the the 214 and best of luck with your walk.
      Thanks for your message.
      Mark

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