Central Wainright’s in a day

21st March 2026

“Bogs, Bogs and more Bogs”

Mylo

Here we are again, another big beasting, this time the central fells. This involved summiting all the central wainwrights starting from White Moss Common at Grasmere and finishing at Dale Bottom farm near Castlerigg. A 40 mile linear route with 13,000 foot of climbing. A mix of terrain , rock up in the langdales , grassy mounds and a lot of bog and heather.

Myself , Tom Dransfield and Callum Norris completed all the route , with Mylo Jewell joining us at Steel Fell around 16 mile in ,with 25 mile to go. It was a fantastic morning with a lovely cloud inversion in Grasmere when we summited the first two of the day, Loughrigg Fell and Silver Howe. 

We headed to the langdales, tackling Blea Rigg , Pavey Ark and all the other fells in that area. Tackling a few Wainwrights in quick succession. We then headed to High raise which would take us to the highest point of the day at 762 metres. A quick bite to eat and we headed off. 10 mile completed. The highest point of the day did not mean the hard bit was out the way , far from it. Sergeant man and Tarn Crag next. The descent off Tarn crag was excellent and was some of the best running for the day to be honest. We got to the bottom of Helm Crag where we ascended via the south west side. This was one of the hardest climbs of the day I felt. Getting blasted by the sun also. 13M completed. 

Next was the traverse over Gibson Knott and round up to Steel Fell. I was debating giving up at Steel Fell as I had a really bad stomach the night before and into the morning. But was persuaded to carry on and see how it got on. We met Mylo here who had been waiting for around 1.5 hours. Now there was 4 of us. The climb from the bottom of Helm Crag to Steel fell was pretty much a continuous climb that lasted 4 miles. One of the toughest sections of the day I felt. 

We then headed to calf crag , sergeant then eagle crag. Lovely views on the top. The route to lining crag involved jumping a wall then a bit of off piste heather running to get to the summit of ullscarf. This section was quite a pull. 

The section from ullscarf to dock tarn was pretty hard going due to all the heather and bog. After the two wainwrights here, Great Cragg and Grange Fell we descended into Watendlath for another gruelling climb up onto High Tove. This is where things were starting to get hard and this was to be increased due to the upcoming boggy terrain.  27 mile in at Watendlath. 

The 800 foot climb upto High Tove was quite a slog and the pace had definitely slowed up a bit by this point. I ate a bit of voom caffeine bar and almost spewed up with the taste. At High Tove it was a boggy crossing to Armboth then an off piste section on tussocks, heather and bog to get to the fire track at the back of Raven Crag. This section was quite energy zapping and no real lines to follow. We had a few minutes up Raven crag and enjoyed the view. There was a few wild campers setting up , hopefully they took all their rubbish away. 

A long climb up to high seat and then down to bleaberry fell and along the nicest path of the day to Walla. The descent off Walla to the east was just bog, heather and long grass. This felt like the hardest descent of the day. Morale was low at this point and it was now dark.  It was this point Mylo stated that he would rather do laps up and down Steel Fell for the same amount of miles rather than do this route again. I look forward to helping him out on this one.

A final climb up high Rigg. A minute or two at the top and a final push to the car at Dale Bottom farm.

This was a really hard route and I found it harder than the northern and the north west wainwrights , even though it was shorter mileage wise and had less climbing. 

The terrain was the one that made it really difficult. It was hard to get going at times due to the lack of lines , bog , heather and more bog. I think we all learnt a lot from this one, even though a route is shorter than another and has less climb doesn’t necessarily mean it may be completed faster. Some of the descents where we thought we could claw time back just wasn’t the case. This was pretty much soul destroying but we plowed on. Everyone struggled at some point on this and it was a team effort getting round.

That’s three of the big wainwright rounds done now. 4 to go , which one next ?

• Loughrigg 0600
• Silver Howe 06.30
• Blea Rigg 07.21 
• Pavey Ark 07.55
• Harrison Stickle 08.12
• Loft  crag 08.25
• Pike of stickle 08.36
• Thunacar Knott 08.47
• High raise 0904
• Sergeant man 09.11
• Tarn Crag 09.33
• Helm crag 10.15
• Gibson Knott 10.40
• Steel Fell 11.23
• Calf Crag 11.53
• Sergeants Crag 12.43
• Eagle Crag 12.57
• Ullscarf 13.50
• Great Crag 14.50
• Grange Fell 15.32
• High Tove 16.15
• Armboth Fell 16.30
• Raven crag 17.20
• High seat 17.57
• Bleaberry Fell 18.25
• Walla Crag 18.54
• High Rigg 20.07
• Finished 20.32 

Thankyou for reading – Daniel