The view from Orrest Head. Photo: Mark Fosh

Aficionados of writer and artist Alfred Wainwright will recreate the trip that sparked his interest in the Lake District almost 80 years ago.

Research by members of the Wainwright Society has revealed that it was on a June day in 1930 that a young Wainwright clambered to the top of Orrest Head, overlooking Windermere, to begin a love of the area that would lead to the production of a remarkable series of handwritten and drawn guides.

And on 7 June, the 80th anniversary of Wainwright’s original journey, a vintage bus will transport society members from the author’s hometown of Blackburn to Windermere from where they will ascend the modest 238m (781ft) viewpoint north of the town.

Alfred Wainwright. His passion for the Lake District was sparked by the trip up Orrest Head

Wainwright Society publicity officer John Burland said: “The committee of the society is planning to celebrate this momentous event by hoping to recreate, as far as possible, that historic day in 1930.

“The plan is to use a 1950s vintage Leyland Tiger bus, owned and maintained by the Ribble Vehicle Preservation Trust to transport us from Blackburn to Windermere using the original route as taken by Ribble buses at the time.

“A brief stop will be made at the newly refurbished 1930s art deco Midland Hotel in Morecambe before the final lap of the journey to Windermere.”

The society’s chairman, broadcaster and writer Eric Robson is planning to make a film of the event and a crew will be recording the bus journey and events at Orrest Head.

The Wainwright Society was formed in 2002 to promote and continue the ethos of the notoriously unsocial writer, who lived his later life in Kendal and devoted his weekends to the production of the Pictorial Guides to the Lakeland Fells.