Carol Morgan during the Montane Spine Race. Photo: Bob Smith/grough

Hot on the heels of American runner John Kelly’s record-breaking round of the Wainwright fells comes another attempt to complete the route, this time by Irish athlete Carol Morgan.

Morgan began her challenge at 6am on Sunday, leaving the Moot Hall in Keswick with her eye on Kelly’s successful round, which ended on Saturday.

He completed his round of all 214 fells in 5 days 12hrs 14mins 42secs, beating Sabrina Verjee’s time by 11 hours. It was Kelly’s second attempt at the record, having aborted his challenge in July 2021.

Morgan held the women’s record for summiting the most Lakeland peaks in 24 hours, bagging 65 fells in 2020. The Yorkshire-based health-service professional, who was born in Dublin, has been placed first female in numerous endurance events, including the Cape Wrath Ultra, the Spine Race, Dragon’s Back, Lakeland 100, Kerry Way Ultra and Fellsman.

At the time of writing, she had summited 164 peaks and was heading up Blencathra, having encountered bad weather during the early part of her challenge.

Morgan has been running for more than 110 hours, and needs to arrive back in Keswick before 6.15pm on Friday to break the record.

Her progress can be followed on the Open Tracking website.

The ascent of all 214 peaks detailed in Alfred Wainwright’s series of Pictorial Guides to the Lakeland Fells involves 515km (320 miles) of running, with 36,000m (118,110ft) of ascent.