The Tubular Fells Map of the Lake District - 214 Wainwright Summits

Product Information

I already managed a New Year’s Day ascent of Helvellyn, but I plan to visit Snowdonia, Lakeland and Scotland this year. At the start of April I anticipate launching the map somewhere in Snowdonia and so I’m sure there’ll be a few ascents there. I’ve done quite a bit of walking but never been on the likes of Cadair Idris which of course features on my new map. I love to go alone onto the fells, but I also enjoy the camaraderie of walking in a group, usually members of the Online Fellwalking Club (OFC).

Do you feel you’ve been able to create a good balance of city life and hiking, or ideally would you want to spend more time in the countryside? The Lake District is my favourite location. I think it’s because of my own broad ranging knowledge that endears me to the place so much. It is such a diverse and contrary to belief a massively human landscape. I love how the human interactions with the landscape has woven an amazing fabric of landscape across the fells. From the geological history, which is almost second to none in terms of its variety, to the human history dotted across the area, it’s a really amazing area. As became evident on my own map, the Lake District is roughly the same size as Greater London but within that small area are 17 major valley lakes, iconic properties, mountains greater than 3000′, but with geological characteristics that make them as varied as the Badlands of Dakota to the Alps of Europe. I have travelled quite a lot and from my own knowledge of the planet, I doubt there is as varied an area of ground on earth with as much interest and shear diversity of beauty. It’s not the greatest landscape in terms of scale, but it’s certainly one of the most intimately beautiful. I have always walked in the outdoors for as long as I can remember. I lived in a village as a child and we used to walk a lot in the local area. The greatest memories from childhood are the snowy days when I would go sledging. It would be 1978 and 1982 when I remember walking over 10 foot high snow drifts and I thought it was magic. I always preferred to go out in the snow than in the hot sun. How I hated the summer of 1976! A new planning map for the 21st century - designed to show all of the 214 "Wainwright Fells", with their names, as clearly as possible on a high quality topographical base map.

This site

As a child I lived and grew up in the Ribble Valley of Lancashire (Tolkien’s “Shire”), one of the most rural and least densely populated areas of the UK. In matter of fact, I’m not a northerner as the geographical centre of the United Kingdom is just north of Dunsop Bridge a few miles from where I lived. I attended secondary school in the small market town of Clitheroe. I read for my Geography degree in the lovely city of Lancaster and spent one year completing my PGCE training in Liverpool. After these two places, which already seemed large to me, it was logical to move for work to the biggest place in the country beginning with ‘L’. In all honesty I wanted to broaden my horizons and experience. As I grew older, I took up fellrunning for fun, first starting on the hills around Clitheroe like Pendle. Things have developed from there. I love being out on the fells, whatever the weather, and enjoy nothing better than scrambling. I’ve also recently started canoeing. You just can’t beat being out on the tops after a month or two down in the city of London.” This challenging walk of 184 miles (296 km) crosses the north of England from St Bees on the Irish Sea to Robin Hood's Bay on the North Sea. Devised by the legendary Wainwright, the Coast to Coast is England's most popular walk. The majority of my walking is solitary, but as stated I walk with the OFC; we organise a meet, most notably on Remembrance Day in recent years, and occasionally I’ve walked with members of the Wainwright Society of which I am a founder member.

Mr Burgess has a degree in geography and teaches the subject in east London. He produced several maps in the past before starting work on the Tubular Fells. “I had to wait until a career break gave me the time to concentrate on my idea,” he said.

Share this page on

You donate some of the profits to Fix the Fells. How has that been working? What do Fix the Fells do?

At some point, as already stated, I need to present money to the Fix the Fells project and with the John Muir Trust opening a new shop in Pitlochry, I will be giving the Trust as well as Scottish MRT some cash as 75 pence goes to each charity from the sale of every MunrOverground. If I get to Lakeland I will undoubtedly go scrambling and walking on the fells and a visit to Pitlochry gives me a fabulous chance to get on the hills above Blair Atholl. The Tubular Fells map is not meant to be used to navigate the fells – it’s not to scale and some of the features are out of their actual alignment to fit the design of the map, but for anyone familiar with the Lakeland fells it provides a fascinating view of their relationship to each other. When did you get into hiking? Is it something you’ve done all your life or did you get into it at a later stage?The result is a stylised map, colour-coded in line with Wainwright’s different volumes of his Pictorial Guides to the Lakeland Fells, with each area depicted in its distinctive hue. In addition to the 214 fells listed by Wainwright, the map includes the sections of the Coast to Coast Walk, the Cumbria Way and the very end of the Dales Way that fall into the area covered.