Ellen Weeton, a governess in Ambleside, also wrote compelling accounts of her mountain climbing in her journal. Journaling was extremely popular then; unlike modern diaries, journals were written to be read by friends and family. Weeton's writing is so good it was eventually collected and published in 1969 - over a century after she died.

Virginia Woolf - Among the foremost modernist authors of the 20th Century, and for whose work - and life - walking was integral. Kerri Andrews: A combination of bloody-mindedness and disbelief. I was reading Robert Macfarlane's The Old Ways in 2014, and thinking of writing a book about how differently we used to move through the landscape, but nagging away was the appearance in the books I was reading that walking was done by men. I made a note in my journal querying this, and noting to myself to look into women's accounts '(if they exist)' I think I wrote. They most certainly do exist. But every book about walking I read – all by men – dismissed even the possibility that women might have walked, might have enjoyed it, might have found it creative and powerful.As I mention above, anecdotally it's other people's concerns that are actually more of a problem, rather than women themselves being afraid. I've never felt afraid on a hill, though I remember being uneasy in urban environments. For me the issue is compass competence – while I can read a map really well somehow bearings confound me. I'd therefore not venture too far into the wilds alone, but it's not social attitudes that's the problem. For other women, it's more a fear of being talked about than any sense of transgression that proves the difficulty. And for someone like Nin, what would seem vulnerability is actually a source of profound strength – men's eyes, sexual possibility – are all sources of creative power for her.

Though it must have been a minority pursuit, not least by dint of class, it's interesting to speculate how many women might have found time and motivation to walk for pleasure, despite the difficulties, but simply not written about it. Absence of evidence not being the same as evidence for absence, do you think the 18th and 19th Century writers you have looked at here are exceptional in that sense, or are they just the ones we know about for obvious reasons? In 1818, when Dorothy Wordsworth climbed up to Esk Hause with her friend Mary Barker, some picnic-bearing servants and a local guide, the pre-eminence of Scafell Pike was not yet clearly established. Arriving at the pass, Wordsworth and her party believed the “point of highest honour” to be neighbouring mountain Scafell; Dorothy was disappointed to find the route there too long to complete on an autumn day before dark. Settling for “the Pikes”, it was only after her return home that Wordsworth realised she had accidentally climbed the biggest peak in the land. Her excitement at the achievement came after the fact, but it was to be one of the feats of which she was most proud. The works of these women writer-walkers offer new insights into the role played by walking in human creativity, and demonstrate that while women walked at times for the same purposes as men, the experience of being on foot has frequently meant markedly different things for women… Nan Shepherd - Free spirited doyenne of the Cairngorms, and author (among other works) of The Living Mountain, a small but beautiful book that has had a profound influence on the contemporary style of nature writing.Kerri is also one of the leaders of Women In The Hills, an Arts and Humanities Research Council-funded project aimed at exploring the factors enabling and inhibiting women’s access to upland landscapes. The project brings together people from all areas of walking, mountaineering, land access and management, to drive change in women’s access and experiences. Kerri is the General Editor of Nan Shepherd’s letters, the first-ever edition of Shepherd’s, which will be published in 2023 by Edinburgh University Press. She is also a keen hill-walker and a member of Mountaineering Scotland. I have chosen two walker-writers from the book to touch upon: Dorothy Wordsworth and Virginia Woolf. Why has it persisted into our own century, and what steps do you think we can take – and I very much include the outdoor media here – to work towards a more levelled-up representation? In July 1798, a 22-year old woman went up Snowdon with her mother, aunt, and a local Welsh-speaking guide. The women began walking at 11pm aiming for sunrise on the summit. To a modern reader, this approach seems surprisingly intrepid. But in fact, night ascents of Snowdon were not unusual. A manuscript from 1775 held in the National Library of Wales reveals an anonymous woman voicing her frustration that her group (a party that included three women) would not set out to climb Snowdon at midnight, as she desired, but at 8am the next morning. Dazu muss allerdings auch erwähnt werden, dass ich aufgrund von der befristeten Leihfrist dazu gezwungen war schneller zu lesen, als mir lieber gewesen wäre. Ich kann mir sehr gut vorstellen, dass ich mit mehr Zeit einfach nur längere Pausen zwischen den Kapiteln eingelegt hätte um dieses Buch langsamer genießen und verdauen zu können.