Members of Lancaster University climbed the Lake District peak, Skiddaw, to mark a historic day in the history of mountaineering.

The commemorative walk, made in period costume, was part of the Wordsworth Trust’s project, ‘“This Girl Did”: Dorothy Wordsworth and Women Mountaineers’, celebrating the writer’s ascent of Scafell Pike on 7 October 1818.

On the same day that Dorothy made her pioneering climb of England’s highest mountain, a number of her friends, including the painters William Green and Sir George Beaumont, ascended the more popular peak Skiddaw.

The walk was open to the public and involved on-location readings from the period’s mountaineering literature.

Professor Simon Bainbridge, of the Department of English Literature and Creative Writing, will give a related talk entitled ‘“Active Climbers of the Hills”: Women in the Mountains, 1787-1829’ at the Jerwood Centre, Grasmere at 3pm on 1^st December 2018.

Further details are available at https://wordsworth.org.uk/events/active-climbers-of-the-hills-women-in-the-mountains-1787-1829/

Photographed: Members of Lancaster University and the Wordsworth Trust on the summit of Skiddaw. Left to right: Jonny Dry (Postgraduate Student, English Literature and Creative Writing), Tom Langridge (Engagement Officer, Wordsworth Trust), Dr Paul Davies (Wordsworth Trust), Dr Louise Ann Wilson (LICA), Professor Simon Bainbridge (English Literature and Creative Writing). Photograph by Rebecca Robinson.