🧙♂️ ROUTINES CAN BE PLEASANTLY REASSURING, like a pair of comfy slippers or a familiar trip to the paper shop.
Latrigg‘s like that for me and my boy. We invariably kick off a Lake District stay with a stroll up Keswick’s local molehill.
I’m happy to say that I can indeed classify Latrigg as ‘easy’, albeit slightly breath-taking – literally – for about 5%-10% of the ascent. My 58-year-old knees aren’t what they used to be, but I’m still capable of such feats for now.
A recent mayor of Keswick, Steve Harwood, set himself a curious challenge two or three years ago which I’ve probably mentioned before: to climb up the town’s very own Wainwright by 365 unique routes in, did you guess… 365 days!
He did it, by all accounts, despite having a few days off for broken bits, which he caught up later in the year. Good for him – what an inspiration and all for a good cause, to boot!
We were greeted, as usual, by a few nonchalant woolly munchers, although most of them have had their winter coats shorn off by now.
My new challenge is linked to the mayor’s one: looking for his personal stone each time I ascend. Let me explain.
He is sure that the official height of Latrigg is not all it’s made out to be. More precisely, that it’s lacking a good few inches!
Ordnance Survey maps say it’s 368 metres. Wainwright cites 1203 feet which rounds up to 367 m. But Keswick’s good mayor was so convinced it was higher, that he got all sorts of fancy satellite technology to check his theory. It apparently confirmed his hunch and he had a special stone engraved to mark the verification and the spot.
369 metres is the new height of Latrigg which nevertheless remains one of the lowest Wainwrights. Despite its newly acquired prominence, it’s still number 206 out of 214, tucked snuggly between Troutbeck Tongue at 364 m and Ling Fell at 373 m.
If you go up there looking for Mr. Harwood’s handywork, however, you may end up feeling rather perplexed. Not only are there about three distinct ‘tops’ pretending to be the actual summit, the good mayor’s lonely landmark isn’t on top of any of them.
You need to decide which bump seems to be the real highest, and then wander off a few metres northish with your eyes to the ground. If you’re lucky, one of the first nondescript pale grey stones you trip over will prove to be not-so anonymous, bearing the famous inscription mentioned above. See my photo here for the item in question.
As the (now ex-) mayor seems to like symbolic gestures, he could extend his year’s-worth-of-routes challenge to a new-route-per-metre ramble. So, he would need to find four more paths up the mountain to bump the tally up to 369, naming the last one, which should clearly end at his sacred stone, after himself for good measure.
The Harwood Route would henceforth be his legacy to the Lakeland fells and a fine one at that.
Happy meandering!
The Laggard of Lakeland 🌄
🧭 (Lakeland Chronicles No.37)
Visit my fun Lakeland Chronicles Facebook group to comment on THIS POST, take part in the regular tricky quizzes and share your own shots ‘n’ stories with us!
⛰ Wainwright Log: 48 of 214 Fells Felled / 0 Books Bashed / Visit
