The easiest Wainwrights: where to start

The easiest Wainwright is Latrigg. From the Gale Road car park above Keswick it is 2.0 km there and back with 100 m of ascent, and WalkLakes gives a minimum time of 35 minutes. Little Mell Fell and Hallin Fell come next, both under 2 km and under 170 m of climbing from their usual starts.

The ten fells below all start from a car park or lay-by, climb less than 300 m, and take no more than about an hour and a half for the whole walk. Distances and ascents are for the full walk and come from WalkLakes route pages, most of them linked from its list of gentle fell walks for beginners. Their times are minimums for steady walking, so allow half as long again if you stop for photos and a flask.

The ten, in order of climb

• Latrigg, 368 m. Gale Road car park above Applethwaite. 2.0 km, 100 m, 35 minutes. A gravel path for walkers with limited mobility runs most of the way up.
• Little Mell Fell, 505 m. Lay-by at The Hause, room for four or five cars. 1.3 km, 120 m, 30 minutes. Short but steep at first, then a gentler traverse.
• Hallin Fell, 388 m. Opposite St Peter's Church on Martindale Hause, above Howtown. 2.0 km, 160 m, 40 minutes. Steep grass that gets slippery when wet.
• Ling Fell, 373 m. Pull-ins above Eskin or Brumston Bridge near Wythop. 2.7 km, 181 m, 50 minutes. An old corpse road climbs gently, then steepens near the top.
• Binsey, 447 m. Roadside space beside Binsey Lodge for a couple of cars. 3.0 km, 190 m, 55 minutes. Grass all the way, and no bog.
• Castle Crag, 290 m. National Trust car park at Rosthwaite. 4.5 km, 214 m, 1 hour 15 minutes. The last climb is a steep zigzag up old slate spoil, so take it steadily.
• Sale Fell, 359 m. Brumston Bridge or the verge near Wythop church. 3.4 km, 215 m, about 1 hour. Gravel and grass, with a few steep slopes.
• Black Fell, 323 m. National Trust car park at Tarn Hows. About 250 m of climbing in all; Walk My World found the detour adds about 1 hour 20 minutes to the Tarn Hows loop.
• Great Mell Fell, 537 m. A muddy pull-in for three cars on the lane south east of the fell. 3.5 km, 270 m, 1 hour 10 minutes. A steady climb, wet underfoot low down.
• Walla Crag, 379 m. Great Wood National Trust car park on the Borrowdale road. 4.7 km, 283 m, 1 hour 25 minutes as a circuit. The path beside Cat Gill is steep and stone pitched.

Three that look easy and aren't

Catbells is often sold as the first fell to try, and it is a good one, but the WalkLakes round from Hawse End climbs 500 m over 6.0 km, and near the top there are short rock steps where you need your hands. Treat it as the step after this list, not part of it.

Mellbreak, above Loweswater, is only 512 m high. Its usual line up the north end climbs a tongue of loose scree and a rocky gully, and WalkLakes grades the terrain 4 out of 5, its "hands on rock" level.

Hard Knott needs only about 190 m of climbing from the top of Hardknott Pass. The catch is the drive: Hardknott is one of the steepest roads in England, and the ground on the fell is boggy enough to need basic map reading.

Why these make good first fells

Each of these counts toward the 214 as much as Scafell Pike does. Short, roadside tops also suit the end of a round. On the LDWA register of completions, 45 of the 955 recorded finishers completed on Castle Crag, more than on any other fell, and Binsey had 19. On the Wainwright Society's register, Castle Crag has 66 finishes and comes third, behind Great End and Haystacks. The page on where people finish the Wainwrights has the full picture.

If you are new to fell walking, the beginner's guide covers kit and planning, and the Keswick guide has more short fells close to town. Short routes still cross open fell, so carry a map and compass and check the Mountain Weather Information Service (MWIS) forecast before you go.