Running Notes

These notes are intended to provide a short summary of the best line to take in terms of time and effort. If you wish to use them, it is best to copy the whole page and paste it into a word processor and have each section printable on an A5 sheet.

The notes are meant to be read in conjunction with the OS Explorer OL series of maps:- OL4, OL5, OL6 & OL7. However there is a new (as of 2005) map at 1:40,000 scale of the whole Lake District on one sheet. The map is produced by the BMC in association with Harveys maps. The map is printed on plastic so it is tear resistant and completely waterproof! Someone at the BMC must have known about the Bob Graham Round as, although the main map finishes just to the north of Skiddaw, Great Calva appears on an “insert” on the back.

Grid references are in parentheses and are preceded with GR: (GR123456). Summits are not generally given grid references in these notes. Also some spellings may be different to those in common use: particularly the use of the correct “gill” as opposed to the pretentious “ghyll” introduced by Wordsworth and Southey.

Bearings are also in parentheses but are preceded by MB-: (MB-256). All bearings are magnetic rather than grid. The magnetic variation is taken as 3 degrees.

To download a set of route notes taken from mapping software here (21Kb) This contains five text files of grid references and an “.mmo” file which may be imported into Memory Map s oftware. Note that I have no connection with Memory Map other than as a customer.

If anyone has any corrections or additions to make to these notes then please send them in.

The notes that appear here depend on the direction chosen in the calculator. By default the notes are for the clockwise direction. If you change the direction in the calculator during the current session then you will have to force your browser to refresh this page to see the new notes.

There are several points on the round where there are alternative routes. These are indicated by the word (alternative) in the text. Hold your mouse over the word to see the variation.

Section Times

The table below shows expected times for each section for a number of schedules.

Note that if the text appears to be cut at the right hand side of the window - either make your browser window wider or use the scrollbar at the foot of the screen to pan left and right. If you want a copy of the text, click anywhere in the notes themselves and use your operating system's "select all" key combination. You can then copy and paste the text into any text editor.

Alternatively: print the whole page - the formatting rules will give you a simple layout