The great gifts round
- Jack Oliver
- Dec 26, 2025
- 3 min read
The Great Gifts Round – A Historic and Demanding Mountain Challenge
The Great Gifts Round (GGR) is one of the Lake District’s most demanding and meaningful fell-running and mountain challenges. I completed the round last weekend as a long, committing day in the hills, and it’s a route that combines physical endurance, technical terrain, and deep historical significance.
Linking 14 major fells gifted to the National Trust after the First World War, the round is both a serious mountain undertaking and a powerful way to experience the landscape as a living memorial to those who lost their lives.
What Is the Great Gifts Round?
The Great Gifts Round starts and finishes at St Olaf’s Church, Wasdale Head: View start point here
From here, the route takes in some of the wildest and most iconic terrain in England, including:
Scafell Pike – England’s highest mountain : Check out guided running
Great Gable
Kirk Fell
Lingmell
Great End
Alongside these headline summits are several lesser-known but equally demanding tops, which together create a continuous, high-level journey through the heart of the Western Fells.
There is no fixed route or summit order, allowing experienced runners and walkers to adapt their line to conditions, strengths, and weather. However, the requirement to start and finish at St Olaf’s Church gives the round its historic and symbolic significance.
A Living Memorial
The Great Gifts Round commemorates the “Great Gift” of land donated to the National Trust after WWI.
In 1919, thousands of acres of Lake District fells were gifted as a living memorial to those who fell in the war, ensuring permanent public access to the mountains. The GGR honours this legacy by linking the key summits included in the original donation, creating a route that is as meaningful as it is demanding.
How Hard Is the Great Gifts Round?
The GGR is a highly strenuous, full-day (or longer) mountain route requiring:
Excellent navigation skills
Strong aerobic and muscular endurance
Confidence on exposed scrambling terrain
Sound mountain judgement in changeable conditions
Expect relentless ascent and descent, hands-on scrambling, loose scree, steep gullies, and exposed traverses. While the round can be completed as a long walk or a run, it is best attempted in summer with stable weather and full mountain kit.
If you’re working towards challenges like this, focused preparation makes a huge difference and time spent learning to navigate properly will really set you up for success Fell Fit Coaching offer a great Navigation for runners course
The 14 GREAT GIFTS Summits
The Great Gifts Round includes some of England’s most famous mountains, such as:
Scafell Pike, Great Gable, Kirk Fell, Great End, Lingmell, Ill Crag, Broad Crag, and others.
Together, these fell's form a demanding, almost continuous high-level traverse through some of the most rugged terrain in the Lake District.
Key Route Features
Kirk Fell Climb
A steep gully-and-rib style climb straight out of Wasdale, tackling the imposing nose of Kirk Fell. If you’re not properly warmed up, you soon will be. Steep, direct, and uncompromising, this sets the tone early in the day.
Great Gable Traverse (Girdle)
One of the most serious sections of the route. The south-face traverse of Great Gable involves sustained scrambling with significant exposure. In wet or windy conditions this section becomes particularly hazardous, and careful line choice is essential—working down toward Windy Gap.
Glaramara and Allen Crags
Not a headline feature, but a significant mental challenge. After dropping toward Borrowdale, the long climb back out is draining. Choosing the correct line across boggy ground can save both time and energy at this stage of the round.
Great End
The scramble up Great End via The Band is arguably the most technical section of the route. Steep scrambling and complex terrain mean that poor route choice here can significantly increase both difficulty and time spent on the hill.
Broad Crag to Scafell Pike
From Great End, the line across to Broad Crag is straightforward in navigation terms, but progress is slow. Broken rocks and awkward boulder fields are especially taxing when you’re already deep into the challenge, before the final push to Scafell Pike.
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Thinking of Attempting the Great Gifts Round?
Whether you’re planning the Great Gifts Round, a long Wasdale mountain day, or your first serious technical challenge, preparation is key.
If you’d like support with:
Guided days in Wasdale or Uk wide
Get in touch to discuss how I can help via Whatsapp.
About Jack
Jack is a Lake District based S & C coach and mountaineering Instructor who has spent the better part of the last 1- year completing some of the biggest ultras in the uk including Bob Graham rounds, Dragons back and more he has wealth of experience from climbing to running in some of the most remote regions of the Uk
