18 on the 18th

From 214 to 18: One Year After Completing All 214 Wainwrights

Date: 18 October 2026

📍 Route: Pooley Bridge > Heughscar Hill > Arthur's Pike > White Knott > Bonscale Pike > Swarth Fell > Howtown > Ullswater Way > Pooley Bridge

📏 Distance: 17.55 km

⬆️ Ascent: 621 m

⌛ Time: 5:22 h

Weather: An extraordinary October morning! Crisp and cool to start, glorious sunshine, barely any wind, spectacular visibility and warm enough to finish in just a shirt!

Mood: Completely captivated by the views, reluctant to leave Bonscale Pike and quietly amused by my unplanned Wainwright anniversary. Eighteen on the eighteenth, with a rainbow thrown in for good measure! 🌈

Three Hikes the Day Before Weren't Enough!

After three hikes on Saturday, including the rather unforgettable night-time adventure over Striding Edge and Helvellyn (read here), you would think I'd have earned myself a lie-in. Well, that clearly wasn't happening! I hadn't slept particularly well anyway, so I was up early, already thinking about where to wander next.

The day before, I'd realised there was another Outlying Fell nearby, Heughscar Hill, and that little discovery had been sitting in the back of my mind. I was hardly going to leave it there, was I?

The morning was absolutely extraordinary. Cool, crisp October air, beautiful sunshine and visibility that makes you want to stop every few minutes just to look around (and take 1000s pictures). After the previous day's adventures, I couldn't have asked for better weather.

The initial plan was to visit Heughscar Hill, but being so close to Arthur's Pike and Bonscale Pike, I decided to revisit those two Wainwrights as well. This time, however, I would approach them from the Pooley Bridge side, something I hadn't done before. And so began my fourth hike in two days. What I consider a relaxing weekend. 😂

Heughscar Hill and a Different Way Into the Fells

Heughscar Hill was my first objective, another Outlying Fell to add to my growing collection. But what made this morning particularly special was the landscape opening up around me.

I had been in this part of the Lake District before, two years earlier, when I completed a rather ambitious day bagging 12 Wainwrights. Arthur's Pike and Bonscale Pike had been the first two that day, approached from Howtown via a very steep ascent that had clearly made a lasting impression (read on)! This time I was coming from the opposite direction, and everything felt different.

I've really come to appreciate something since completing the Wainwrights. I can return to summits I've already visited, take completely different routes and discover sides of the landscape I hadn't experienced before. The summit might be familiar, but the journey to reach it can be very new.

I absolutely loved this approach. My eyes were constantly wandering, trying to identify the surrounding fells. Little Mell Fell, Gowbarrow Fell (where I was the day before, read here), Place Fell, Glenridding Dodd and the Helvellyn range were all part of that magnificent panorama. Some of those mountains I'd walked only the day before, including the very ridges I'd crossed in darkness just hours earlier! It is wonderful looking across a landscape and recognising so much of it through your own adventures. It's no longer just a collection of mountains on the horizon. Each one has a memory attached to it.

Arthur's Pike: A Sandwich With a View

Eventually I reached Arthur's Pike, and the views were simply spectacular. I stood there eating my sandwich, looking out over Ullswater and the surrounding mountains, completely absorbed in the scenery.

It occurred to me just how different this experience was from my first Wainwright round. Back then, particularly on those big multi-summit days, there was always somewhere else to get to. Another peak, another ascent, another few kilometres before the day was done. Not that I didn't enjoy those moments, because I absolutely did, but there was usually a route and a list of objectives waiting for me.

Now? I can stand on a summit eating my sandwich for as long as I fancy! 😂 There is no pressure to tick off another mountain, no particular urgency to keep moving and no feeling that I should be somewhere else. I can simply enjoy being there, and on a morning like this, with sunshine, extraordinary visibility and Ullswater looking magnificent below, that felt rather special.

Swarth Beck, a Bit of Bog and Bonscale Pike

Eventually, I continued towards Bonscale Pike, crossing Swarth Beck along the way. The ground was a little boggy in places, so out came the walking poles. They would prove particularly useful later, although I didn't quite appreciate just how much at that point!

Bonscale Pike was somewhere I remembered very well from my previous visit in 2024. In fact, I remembered just how spectacular the views were, and I was delighted to discover that my memory hadn't exaggerated them. What a place!

I sat down, looked around and decided I didn't particularly want to leave. The weather was glorious, sunshine, no wind and beautiful, uninterrupted views across Ullswater and the surrounding fells. Then I realised something rather extraordinary about the date!

18 on the 18th, Exactly One Year Later!

It was 18 October 2026, exactly one year since I completed all 214 Wainwrights. On 18 October 2025, I had stood on my final Wainwright, bringing an enormous personal adventure to its conclusion (read here). And here I was, exactly one year later, sitting on Bonscale Pike, enjoying another beautiful day in the Lake District.

The contrast between the two days was quite striking. A year earlier, sunshine had been in rather short supply, the wind was horrendous, and the weather had been a very different affair. This time there was sunshine, barely a breath of wind and views that seemed to stretch forever.

But the coincidence didn't end there. Bonscale Pike was my 18th Wainwright of Round 2. On the 18th of October. Exactly one year after completing Round 1.

Now, here's the part that even I find hard to believe. NONE of this was planned! The only reason I was in the Lake District that weekend was for the organised Striding Edge by Torchlight event, which I'd booked back in January. Everything else was spontaneous. I certainly hadn't set out to climb exactly 18 Wainwrights in the year following my completion of all 214, let alone arrange for the eighteenth to fall on the eighteenth!

I know some people will find that difficult to believe, and looking at those numbers, I can hardly blame them! But that is genuinely how it happened. No carefully calculated summit count, no anniversary hike planned in advance, no clever arrangement of dates. Just me, wandering around the fells as usual, and the numbers lining up rather beautifully. Just like back then.

In fact, I haven't even officially committed to doing a second round of the Wainwrights. For a while, I've been telling myself that I'm simply revisiting the fells whenever I happen to be in the Lakes. No targets, no deadlines and certainly no grand plan to climb all 214 again. Except I've been counting them. All eighteen of them. So perhaps it's time to stop pretending I'm not keeping track! 😂

Will I ever finish Round 2? I genuinely don't know. And for once, I don't particularly care. I'll keep exploring, taking different routes and revisiting summits whenever the opportunity arises. If that eventually leads to another 214, then so be it. For now, 18 will do rather nicely.

A Little Anniversary Gift From the Fells 🌈

As I sat there enjoying the views, something lovely happened. A rainbow appeared!

It hadn't been raining where I was, and yet there it was, forming across the landscape while I sat on Bonscale Pike on the first anniversary of completing the Wainwrights. Now, I'm not particularly inclined to attach some grand meaning to every coincidence, but this one did make me smile. Eighteen Wainwrights on the eighteenth, exactly one year later, and now a rainbow? I decided to take it as a little personalised anniversary gift from the fells. Thank you very much. I'll take that! 🌈

I stayed there for quite some time, soaking up the sunshine and taking in those incredible views. A couple arrived, and we had a lovely chat. Eventually, I had to peel myself away from the summit, and I really do mean peel myself away. I could have happily stayed there for hours.

Unfortunately, my car was still some considerable distance away in Pooley Bridge, and I was supposed to be heading back to Liverpool afterwards, spend a couple of hours there and then head back to Nottingham. There was also the small matter of getting down to Howtown.

Swarth Fell: Up or Down? Pick Your Poison!

Now, if you've ever tackled the steep slopes of Swarth Fell between Bonscale Pike and Howtown, you'll probably know exactly what I'm talking about. Two years earlier, I'd climbed this way, and I remembered very clearly just how steep it was. Well, descending it is an entirely different ball game! 😂

It really is steep. I was extremely glad to have my walking poles, which made the descent much more manageable and, to be honest, rather fun.

Having now experienced it in both directions, I feel reasonably qualified to have an opinion on the matter. The problem is, I'm still not sure which way is easier! Ascending is obviously hard work, but descending brings its own challenges, and I imagine the answer would depend on the conditions. On a dry day like this, with poles and good grip, I actually enjoyed it. Wet and slimy? Frosty or icy? Well, that could be a different form of entertainment! 🤣

I'm glad I've now done it both ways, though. I reached Howtown, with the steepest part of the adventure behind me. All that remained was the walk back to Pooley Bridge. Only another seven kilometres or so. Just a little stroll, then!

Seven Kilometres Along the Ullswater Way

From Howtown, I followed the Ullswater Way back towards Pooley Bridge, and what an absolutely beautiful way to finish the day/weekend. The weather had become so pleasant that I removed all my extra layers and walked the final section in just my shirt. In October!

After the cool morning, the previous night's torchlight adventure and all the elevation I'd accumulated over the weekend, I was enjoying a warm and peaceful walk beside Ullswater. There was no need to rush.

By the time I reached my car in Pooley Bridge, I'd covered 17 km, climbed 620 metres and spent over 5 hours out exploring. Not bad for the morning after three hikes and a night-time crossing of Striding Edge! Four hikes in two days. My definition of a relaxing weekend. 😂

🔍 Final Thoughts

As I headed away from the Lakes, I was reflecting on the year. This was quite possibly my final Lake District weekend of 2026, and I'd only managed three trips here all year. Just three (compared with ten last year)! Yet those three visits had produced 9 hikes and some of the most memorable mountain experiences I've ever had.

If I had to choose the 3 adventures that really stand out, they would be the West Wall Traverse and Deep Ghyll (read here), an extraordinary adventure that will stay with me for a very long time; Dore Head Screes (read here), another unforgettable experience in the fells; and Striding Edge and Helvellyn by torchlight, a completely different mountain adventure, and one I won't be forgetting anytime soon.

Three very different experiences, each memorable for its own reasons. And then there was this final Sunday, with its beautiful weather, familiar summits approached from unfamiliar directions, an entirely accidental anniversary coincidence and that unexpected rainbow. It might not have involved the same drama or difficulty as those other adventures, but it was special in a completely different way.

I think that's what I love so much about exploring the mountains. No two days are ever quite the same, even when you return to somewhere you've been before. Two years ago, Arthur's Pike and Bonscale Pike were the beginning of an ambitious 12-Wainwright day. This time, they were places to linger, to look around and to appreciate without the pressure of completing anything.

A year ago, I was finishing a challenge that had occupied so much of my time and energy. Now I'm simply enjoying being back in the fells, following whatever routes catch my attention and occasionally admitting that, yes, I might still be counting Wainwrights. Eighteen so far, and absolutely no promises about the remaining 196! 🤣

I don't know when I'll next return to the Lake District, but these three trips have given me more than enough memories to carry into next year. And what a weekend to finish on.

Peaks

⛰️ Heughscar Hill (375 m)

⛰️ White Knott (422 m)

⛰️ Arthur's Pike (533 m)

⛰️ Bonscale Pike (524 m)