14 guides
Percy Donald and the Donalds: When Scotland's 2,000-Foot Lowland Hills Got a Name
Percy Donald compiled a list of Scottish Lowland hills over 2,000 feet, giving a name to summits south of the Highland Line that didn't qualify as Munros or Corbetts. The list is smaller, quieter, and still used by walkers who prefer less company.
Gwen Moffat: The Deserter Who Became Britain's First Female Mountain Guide
Moffat left the Army without permission in 1945, lived in a caravan, climbed instead of working, and eventually qualified as Britain's first female mountain guide. She wrote detective novels set in the hills and never apologised for choosing climbing over convention.
Helene Diamantides: The Doctor Who Set Women's Fell Running Records and Then Stopped Racing
In the 1980s, Helene Diamantides held multiple women's fell-running records, including the Bob Graham Round. She ran, worked as a GP, and quietly stepped back from competition without announcing retirement. Her records stood for years while she carried on walking.
Alan Dawson: The Man Who Gave Britain the Marilyns and Then Counted Everything Else
In the 1990s, Alan Dawson formalised the Marilyn classification—every hill with 150 metres of prominence—and then applied the same rigour to HuMPs, Tumps, and Simms. His books turned relative height into a national obsession, and he kept updating the lists until other people took over.
Timothy Synge and the 670 Lakeland Summits
Most walkers follow the crowds, but Tim Synge’s list of 670 hills is for those who want the Lake District to themselves.
The Astronomer on the Hill: Getting to Know "Clem" Clements
The astronomer who brought the precision of the stars to the British hills.
John Rooke Corbett
The man who gave Scotland’s overlooked 2,500-foot peaks a name: the Corbetts.
Benny Rothman and The Kinder Scout Mass Trespass: When Walking on the Moors Became a Criminal Matter
On 24 April 1932, around four hundred ramblers walked onto forbidden moorland in a planned act of defiance. Six were arrested, and five received prison sentences—not for trespassing, but for public-order offences and assault. The harshness of the convictions turned the defendants into symbols and accelerated the campaign for open access.
Ethel Haythornthwaite and the Battle for Longshaw: When One Woman Helped Shape the National Parks
In 1924, Ethel Haythornthwaite founded the Sheffield Association for the Protection of Rural Scenery and led the successful public appeal to save the Longshaw Estate. Her work on landscape protection and open access helped lay the intellectual and political foundations for Britain's national parks and green belts.
Bill Birkett
The Man Who Redefined the Lake District Fells
Joss Naylor: The Shepherd Who Ran Fells Because Farms Don't Pay Themselves
While Wainwright was drawing the routes, Naylor was running them—seventy-two peaks in under twenty-four hours, not for sponsorships or glory, but because he was a working shepherd who happened to be indestructibly fast. He still lives on the same Wasdale farm.
Bob Graham: The Guesthouse Owner Who Ran Forty-Two Peaks in a Day Because He Could
In 1932, a Keswick landlord invented the round that still defines Lakeland fell running—not for fame or funding, just to see if his legs would manage it before he turned forty-three. Now about thirty people a year try to match him, and most of them don't run guesthouses.
Alfred Wainwright
The Man Who Audited the Lake District - A Kendal accountant who turned a mountain obsession into a seven-volume masterpiece.
Sir Hugh Munro
The story of Sir Hugh Munro and the mountain list that shaped Scottish hillwalking.