Joss Naylor was one of the giants of the mountain running world, not only dominating his sport in the last third of the 20th century but his charisma put him on the world map.
His greatest feats of endurance took place in the cloudy hills of Cumbria, far from the public eye, in the 1970s and 80s, but the unprecedented extremity of his achievements, and the stamina that made them possible, captured the imagination of mountain enthusiasts everywhere.
Naylor, a Lakeland sheep farmer who spent most of his life in the village of Wasdale Head and has died aged 88, took part in his first mountain running event on the Lake District Mountain Trail in September 1960, despite doctors’ advice to avoid strenuous activities following an accident as a teenager.
Over the next few years, he began to race regularly, honing his technique and focusing his ambitions. He was not the fastest, and after taking over the lease on his father’s farm in 1962, he had little time for systematic training. But he felt comfortable moving at speed over even the roughest terrain – he said his experience with drystone walls helped him “read” the rocks – and his stamina seemed superhuman.
Towards the end of the 1960s, he began a purple period that would last for nearly 20 years: winning the Mountain Trial 10 times and the Ennerdale Horseshoe nine times in a row (1968-76), as well as winning back-to-back tough events such as the Wasdale, Duddon Valley, Welsh 1,000m Peaks, Manx Mountain Marathon and Karrimor Mountain Marathon (now the Original Mountain Marathon).
But it was in individual ultra-distance challenges that he really excelled. In 1971 he became only the sixth person to complete the Bob Graham Round, a famous 66-mile circuit of 42 Lake District peaks in 24 hours, once considered as unattainable as the four-minute mile. He then set out to extend the circuit.
In 1972, in the middle of a terrible storm, he completed 63 summits in a 24-hour time limit. Chris Brasher, who paced him for part of the route, described it as “a moment equal to any of the greatest Olympic races I have ever seen.” Three years later, Naylor took his total to 72 summits: the equivalent of climbing up and down Everest, Ben Nevis, Snowdon and Kinder Scout in a single day, all in a scorching heatwave.
No challenge was too extreme. He ran the 268-mile Pennine Way in just three days (1974), the 190-mile Coast to Coast from St Bees to Robin Hood’s Bay in 41 hours (1976), Hadrian’s Wall in just under 11 hours (1980) and a route linking the Lake District’s 26 “lakes, marshes and waters” in 19 hours and 15 minutes (1983). When he took his shoes off at the end of the Coast to Coast, the skin on his feet and all his toenails came off.
Naylor was born at Wasdale Head, the youngest child of Joe, a shepherd, and his wife Ella (née Wilson), who moved there in 1927. It was not a comfortable upbringing: there was no electricity in the valley until 1977. But helping with farm work from the age of seven, Joss became accustomed to long, hard, outdoor days and developed a tolerance for physical discomfort that, combined with his love of nature, would fuel his later achievements.
At 15, he left school to work full-time on a farm (in nearby Gosforth). But his adolescence was marred by the effects of two minor accidents that left him with chronic back pain. By his early 20s, the medical community had almost given up on him. All the cartilage in his right knee had been lost; two discs had been removed from his spine; he wore a special corset to prevent further damage. He was declared unfit for national service and warned to avoid strenuous activity.
He listened, but not for long. Other young men his age were taking part in long-distance mountain running, and Naylor, whose home overlooked Scafell Pike, Yewbarrow and Great Gable, had a ringside seat. When the Mountain Trail event began at Wasdale in 1960, Naylor could not resist. He threw off his corset, cut his work trousers off at the knees and ran with the official competitors in heavy work boots. He cramped towards the end, but was well enough to know he had found his calling.
In 1977, after many years of running and breaking records, he was warned that he would have to use a wheelchair for the rest of his life if he didn’t give up farm work. So he took a job indoors mentoring apprentices at the nearby Windscale (now Sellafield) nuclear power station. Still, he held on to his flock of 1,000 Herdwick sheep, which he then kept “as a hobby”. And the mountain running, after all, became even more extreme.
In June 1986, at the age of 50, in the midst of another heatwave, he attempted to continuously traverse all 214 peaks in Alfred Wainwright’s seven-volume Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells. It took seven days, one hour and 25 minutes – a record not broken until 2014 – and required him to “go deeper than I’ve ever gone before”. By the end, the flesh on both ankles had rubbed off to the nerve, and his throat and tongue were so swollen that he could barely speak, let alone eat or drink.
To his fans, these ugly details capture the essence of “Iron Joss.” Naylor’s successes owe more to his indomitable spirit than to genetic good luck. He suffered no less than other runners. His greatness came from his refusal to surrender.
In an age when elite sport was increasingly seen as a science or a business, he ran with his heart, not his head. His favourite fuels were rock cakes and apple pie, washed down with Guinness or salted blackcurrant juice or the occasional cod-liver oil (sipped straight from the bottle, he said, “like whiskey”). And he would not hesitate to interrupt a record attempt to save a lamb in distress.
He was appointed MBE in 1976, but remained surprisingly modest about his achievements. Fewer mountain runners were astonished and inspired by the attention he paid to their efforts, and he offered advice or encouragement to anyone who shared his love of the mountains. The Joss Naylor Lakeland Challenge, a 48-mile route for runners over 50 that he founded in 1990, reflects this generous outlook.
He also used his fame to raise money for charity, and did so with great enthusiasm for many years; notably, at the age of 60 he climbed 60 peaks in 36 hours, and at the age of 70 he climbed 70 smaller peaks in 21 hours.
Naylor was active in the mountains even into his 80s, but a stroke in 2021 triggered his final decline.
He is survived by his wife Mary (née Downie), whom he married in 1963, and three children, Paul, Susan and Gillian.
• Joss (Joseph) Naylor, mountain runner and farmer, born February 10, 1936; died June 28, 2024