Make sure you include a visit to the beautiful and
historic Lake District in your tour of England
Wordsworth, Lakes, Mountains and rare flora and fauna
makes the Lake District a 'must-see' for generations of visitors
The Lake District is a rural area located in the North West England.
It is also called Lakeland or The Lakes. Being an extremely popular
holiday destination - both today and historically - it is famous for its
mountains, its fells and, of course, its lakes. The Lake District is
also famous for its association with William Wordsworth and the Lake
Poets with their early 19th century writings and poetry.
The Lake District hosts one of the most visited parks, the Lake
District National Park, which forms part of United Kingdom's 14 National
Parks. Lying entirely within the county of Cumbria, it makes one of
England's few precious mountainous regions. The Lake District is home to
Scafell Pike, England's highest mountain.
There is only one lake in the Lake District National Park that bears the
word 'Lake'. All the others use different forms, with 'mere' being
common. Major reservoirs and lakes in the Lake District National Park
are:
- Bassenthwaite Lake
- Brotherswater
- Buttermere
- Coniston Water
- Crummock Water
- Derwent Water
- Devoke Water
- Elterwater
- Ennerdale Water
- Esthwaite Water
- Grasmere
- Haweswater Reservoir
- Loweswater
- Rydal Water
- Thirlmere
- Ullswater
- Wast Water
- Windermere
There are more lakes, reservoirs and tarns.
The Lake District's geology is rather complex but very well documented.
The oldest rocks are Borrowdale Volcanic and Skiddaw Slate, which date
back some 500 million years. The mountainous geography of Lakeland also
makes it the dampest part of England and very windy. The sheltered
valleys have an average of 5 days of gales per year, the coastal areas
20 days per year and the fell tops 100 days per year. The Lake District
is home to some of the more unique wildlife in England including red
squirrels, a pair of nesting Golden eagles and three rare endangered
fish species. Plant species include sundew, butterwort and a few
carnivorous plants.
Tourism provides a major part of Lake District's industry, with nearly
14 million visitors arriving annually, the majority being from UK's
larger tourist sources; Japan, China, USA, Germany and Spain. The
steamers of Windermere Lake are UK's second most popular tourist
attraction. Cultural Tourism is also on the rise because of the region's
wealth of writers and artists and a strong history that provides theatre
performances in summer in the Blue Box of Century Theatre. These plays
attract thousands of tourists. The theatre's tradition is extended to
venues like Keswick's Theatre by the Lake, which shows a repertoire of
six plays in its summer, Easter and Christmas productions. In addition,
there are many festivals of creative arts including, literature, film
and jazz.
The Lakes region has an intimate relationship with 18th and 19th century
English literature. Thomas Gray could be said to have started this after
writing a journal for his 1769 Grand Tour. William Wordsworth's poems
were probably the most influential and famous such that his poem, 'I
Wandered Lonely as a Cloud', was inspired by his seeing daffodils on
Ullswater's shores. It remains among the most famous English language
poems.
A few phrases and words that are locally used include 'fell', brought
by Viking invaders, 'tarn', used to depict any small water pool and 'Yan
Tan Tethera', traditionally used for a sheep counting system. They are
used as part of Cumbrian dialect and generally in the Lake District.
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