Walks in Limestone Country has been reprinted by the Wainwright Society

Aficionados of the late author Alfred Wainwright have republished one of his out-of-print works.

The Wainwright Society has reprinted the second edition of Walks in Limestone Country, which details the countryside in the Yorkshire Dales around the Three Peaks.

A society spokesperson said: “This is part of the society’s project to republish and reprint certain Wainwright titles and follows the successful republication of A Pennine Journey in 2019 and The Outlying Fells in 2020.

“The success of the Pictorial Guides to the Lakeland Fells inspired Alfred Wainwright to write a guidebook to another of his favourite landscapes: the limestone area of the Yorkshire Dales.

“In his introduction to the book, he wrote: ‘Unlike the Lake District, where beauty is lavishly displayed all around and needs no seeking, the delights of this limestone countryside are not obviously in view.

“‘The delights are there, in full measure and in amazing variety, but they have to be sought on foot. It is a land of surprises. For the explorer there are places of fascinating interest, of strange beauty, of thrilling adventure, such as are not to be found elsewhere. This is a region unique, without a counterpart, but its charms are shyly hidden’.”

The book remained in print for more than 30 years but, as with Wainwright’s other guidebooks, needed revision. In 2003, Chris Jesty began a comprehensive review of all of the late author’s guidebooks, walking the routes and updating the maps and written descriptions, where necessary.

For the Lakeland Guides and long-distance walks, he enlarged each page and made the corrections on tracing paper, which were sent to the publisher to make the amendments to the book pages.

However, for Walks in Limestone Country, Jesty made the amendments himself on the digital files of the book. The second edition was published in 2014. The latest run of the book is a reprint of Chris Jesty’s second edition and no changes have been made to the walks, route descriptions or maps.

For his work on this publication and many years of service to the work of the society Chris Jesty received honorary membership in March 2014.

More details are on the Wainwright Society website.