Runners from a Scottish hill running club completed a challenge to bag all 214 Wainwright fells in the Lake District in a day. Carnethy Hill Running Club achieved the goal in 13.5 hours on Saturday, August 15, 2026.
What are the Wainwrights?
Wainwrights are located in the Lake District of England and include 214 fells (mountains and hills). They are named after author and illustrator Alfred Wainwright, who immortalised them in his seven-volume Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells, published between 1955 and 1966.
Carnethy club’s Wainwrights challenge
It was was club member Lucy Jenner’s idea to take on the Wainwrights challenge. She says: “Our club has previously completed successful a Munro round in a day and a Corbetts round in a day, aiming two have someone on top of all the summits in less than 24 hours.
“So, I thought it would be fun to go south of the border for a change. The Wainwrights seemed like an obvious choice. Also, a lot of people in the club have done or been involved with fell running and challenges like the Bob Graham round, which is also in the Lake District.”
The Bob Graham Round is a fell-running challenge in the Lake District that extends to 66 miles and includes 42 peaks, 39 of which are Wainwrights.
Lucy added: “The club set a target of 24 hours from Friday to Saturday, but all in all it took only 13.5 hours from the first summit to the last summit.”
Some 65 adults, including 25 women, as well as four children and four dogs took part in the Wainwrights in a day feat. In total, the club covered a distance of 639km and a total elevation 43,750m, which is almost five times the height of Mt Everest.
The first summits were ticked off in the early hours of Saturday by club member Alan O’Callaghan, who was also supporting a Bob Graham round. The longest continuous run of 59km was completed by Neil McLure and Duncan Davis.
Lucy says: “There was no particular order to reaching the summits of the Wainwrights. We based our routes on previous research done by Mike Brockhurst, aka the Walking Englishman, who suggests a way to complete all the fells in 36 walks.
“Then people could just pick whichever ones they liked. So it wasn’t a relay, rather the challenge was to have a member of Carnethy on every Wainwright summit in a 24-hour period, like we have previously done withe the Munro and Corbetts challenges.”
A couple of hiccups – and the joy of the finish
While the day went well with fine weather, there were a couple of times during the day when the club worried they would not finish.
Lucy explains: “First, we had 16km and four Wainwrights to do over near Swindale, but the person who was signed up to do them was supporting two separate Bob Graham rounds and we weren’t sure if he would make it back in time to complete the hills within the 24-hour period.
“So, despite having each had big mornings already, Thomas Otton, Declan Valters, Neil Gordon and Ben Horne all volunteered to drive out to Swindale and head up the hills at about 4pm. They didn’t get back to the hostel where we were based until gone 10pm.
“The second small moment of worry was on the very last Wainwright, at 9pm. Neil McLure and Duncan Davis had been going all day, and they thought they had done the final hill but it was unclear which summit was correct.
“Wainwright didn’t necessarily pick the highest top for his list of summits. So, they sent a message, grid reference, elevation and some photos back to HQ and after a lot of slightly panicked cross-referencing, a call went up to say, ‘They’ve done it.’ And that was that!
“Overall it was an amazing day. The club came together so well to help to complete the challenge, from volunteering to organising it to turning up on the day and doing the hills.”