AN exhibition celebrating Dorothy Wordsworth and women mountaineers is set to open in the Lake District.

Running from Saturday September 1 to Sunday December 23 at the Wordsworth Museum in Grasmere, This Girl Did tells her remarkable tale of climbing England’s tallest peak, Scafell Pike, with her friend Mary Barker on October 7, 1818.

The sister of famous poet William Wordsworth, Dorothy was herself a respected author and poet.

Her manuscript description of the climb, held at the Wordsworth Trust, in which she describes Mary as ‘an active Climber of the hills’, is among the earliest surviving accounts of this feat.

By the end of the 19th century, Scafell Pike would be recognised as a favourite of British climbers and mountaineers.

Dorothy’s account is remarkable, too, in that it is part of a rich tradition of early mountaineering about which we often forget: that is, women’s pioneering roles in advancing mountaineering and upland walking as a recreational activity. Dorothy Wordsworth and Mary Barker were among many women who participated in the ‘invention’ of mountaineering during the Romantic-period.

Using Dorothy Wordsworth’s 1818 account of climbing Scafell Pike as a starting point, this exhibition explores how Dorothy inspired, and continues to inspire, people to find new ways of looking at mountains. It features Dorothy’s own manuscript letter describing her ascent of Scafell Pike, alongside contemporary creative responses.

This Girl Did is a collaborative project between Wordsworth Trust and performers, artists and academics, who will explore Dorothy’s place in that history of women’s mountaineering through several mediums.

The outcomes are: a major exhibition at the Wordsworth Trust, including Louise Ann Wilson’s Women’s Walks to Remember installation; a creative film by Jago Miller and Richard Berry, premiered at Kendal Mountain Festival, that reimagines Dorothy’s ascent of Scafell Pike on the bicentenary of her climb; an immersive creative exploration by Alex Jakob-Whitworth of Dorothy’s life that will result in new artworks, and in a celebratory ascent of Skiddaw.

A talk about Dorothy from Dr Joanna Taylor opens the exhibition on Saturday September 1.