Sunday, September 19, 2010

The Worst Wainwright?

Mungrisdale Common was Wainwright's least favourite fell. He said that it, "has no more pretension to elegance than a pudding that has been sat on."

I have to say that I am in total agreement. Having ticked this Wainwright off my list, I would be happy never to go there again. Surrounded by boggy grass, even on the frosty day that I trudged there and back from Blencathra. If I didn't have my GPS with me, it would have been difficult to locate the 'peak'. Or, as Wainwright puts it, "Any one of a thousand tufts of tough bent and cotton-grass might lay claim to crowning the highest point...A thousand tufts, yet not one can be comfortably reclined upon, this being a summit that holds indefinitely all the water that falls upon it."

There is a rumour that Wainwright included it in his famous 214 fells to fill space. I would be surprised if that were the case, he seemed to be far too meticulous to allow such a basic error.




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