Loughrigg Fell

Standing at the heart of the Lake District, this humble Marilyn punches well above its weight. Its complex, undulating summit is a maze of grassy hollows and rocky outcrops, offering famous panoramic views over Windermere, Rydal Water, and Grasmere. It is the quintessential introductory Wainwright, accessible yet endlessly interesting to explore.

• •The name is a hybrid of Old Norse and Old English; 'Lough' refers to the surrounding lakes, while 'hriggr' is the Old Norse word for a ridge, perfectly describing its position as the ridge amongst the waters.
• •Alfred Wainwright devoted more pages to this fell than many higher peaks, praising its extraordinary complexity and noting that no other hill offers such a high reward of beauty for such a small amount of exertion.
• •On its northern flanks lie the Rydal Caves, large man-made caverns resulting from 19th-century slate quarrying. The main cave features a deep pool often crossed by stepping stones, offering a framed view toward the slopes of Nab Scar.
• •The summit provides a celebrated perspective of the Langdale Pikes to the west, while to the north, the entire Fairfield Horseshoe is laid out in a great grassy sweep above the waters of Rydal.
• •The fell is famously criss-crossed by what Wainwright called an 'extraordinary number of paths'; it remains one of the few places in the Lakes where you can be in sight of a pub in three different directions and still manage to get thoroughly turned around.