The Lake District, lakes and poets

The Lake District, in the county of Cumbria in north-west England, is the country's largest national park and one of the best-loved landscapes in the British Isles: long, narrow lakes between green and rocky mountains, stone villages and pastures dotted with sheep. The poet William Wordsworth and the writer Beatrix Potter lived here, and it was here that the English learned to love wild nature. Since 2017 it has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site as a cultural landscape.

History

The mountains and valleys of the Lake District were shaped by the glaciers of the last Ice Age, which carved out the hollows where the lakes lie today. For centuries the region was a poor land of shepherds and miners, considered harsh and frightening by travellers. Everything changed at the end of the 18th century with the Romantic taste for the picturesque and above all with the Lake Poets: Wordsworth, born in Cockermouth in 1770, lived at Grasmere and later at Rydal, and his verse, together with that of Coleridge and Southey, made the region famous.

In the 20th century Beatrix Potter, author of the Peter Rabbit stories, used the proceeds of her books to buy farms and land to save them from development, and on her death in 1943 she left them to the National Trust. In 1951 the Lake District became a national park.

What to see

Windermere and Ambleside

Windermere is the largest natural lake in England, about 17 kilometres long. From Bowness and Ambleside boats run along its whole length, past islands and Victorian villas. It is the busiest area and the easiest to reach.

Grasmere and Wordsworth

At Grasmere you can visit Dove Cottage, the small whitewashed house where Wordsworth lived with his sister Dorothy from 1799 to 1808 and wrote many of his finest poems; next door, the Wordsworth Trust museum holds manuscripts and portraits. The poet is buried in the village churchyard. Not far away is Rydal Mount, the house where he spent his last decades.

Hill Top and Beatrix Potter

Hill Top farm, in the village of Near Sawrey, remains as it was when Beatrix Potter worked there: its rooms, garden and corners of the village appear in the illustrations of her books, such as The Tale of Peter Rabbit.

Keswick, Derwentwater and Ullswater

Further north, the small town of Keswick looks over Derwentwater, one of the most beautiful lakes, and the nearby Castlerigg stone circle, a prehistoric monument ringed by mountains. Ullswater, plied by historic steamers, is loved by walkers. Climbers head for Scafell Pike, the highest peak in England at 978 metres.

Practical information

The park is open all year round. In summer and at weekends the narrow roads fill up, so it is best to use boats, buses and trains. The weather changes quickly and it rains often, so you need waterproof shoes and a jacket. Dove Cottage and Hill Top have seasonal opening hours; Hill Top has timed entry.

Getting there

• By train: to Oxenholme, on the West Coast Main Line, then the branch line to Windermere; for Keswick, a bus from Penrith.
• By car: from the M6, junctions 36 or 40.
• By air: Manchester Airport is about an hour and a half away, with direct trains to Windermere.

Nearby

• Hadrian's Wall and Housesteads fort, to the north-east.
• The Cumbrian coast and the city of Carlisle, with its castle and cathedral.
• Manchester and Liverpool.

Tips

• How long: at least two or three days.
• When to go: May to October; in autumn the colours are splendid and there are fewer crowds.
• A tip: climb to the viewpoint at Orrest Head, twenty minutes' walk from Windermere station: it is the view that made the writer Alfred Wainwright fall in love with the region.

Lake District on the map

Nearby