The Rough Guide to The English Lake District, 1st Edition - Softcover

Brown, Jules

Softcover

ISBN 10: 185828533X ISBN 13: 9781858285337

Publisher: Rough Guides, 2000

Synopsis

Introduction

The Lake District is England's most celebrated, most visited and most hyped scenic area. Tucked into a bulge between the industrial cities of northwest England and the Scottish borders, the small region is literally irresistible to the sixteen million visitors a year who pour in to experience its famous lakes, picturesque villages and alpine landscape. To many, the lure is of a misty-eyed English past - quiet country lanes, ivy-clad inns, agricultural shows and sheep- dog trials - while others seek to tick off English superlatives, including the country's largest and deepest lakes (Windermere and Wast Water respectively). As the Lake District also contains England's highest mountain (Scafell Pike), it should come as no surprise to find that the central lakeland crags - the birthplace of British rock climbing - lure climbers from far and wide. Meanwhile, keen hikers and Sunday strollers flow in year-round to conquer another peak or to follow in the footsteps of chroniclers from Wordsworth to Wainwright. Indeed, the sundry pastoral images could hardly be better known, whether bolstered by the siren words of the Lake Poets or embedded in the minds of the nation's children who grow up with the lakeland tales of Beatrix Potter, Arthur Ransome and John Cunliffe's Postman Pat.

There's no shortage, then, of attractions: sixteen major lakes, hundreds of steeply pitched mountains, scores of waterfalls and valleys, and a dozen major literary sites. Indeed, it's hard to think of a region in Britain with a similar breadth of scenery (wild fells to walled grazing land, glacial lakes to forested valleys) in such a small area. And although the Lake District might appear too popular for its own good, tourist numbers are concentrated in fairly specific areas. Even on the busiest of summer days, it's relatively easy to escape the crowds by climbing to the higher fells and more remote valleys. There are parts of the region, particularly in the north and west, where tourism is still decidedly low-key. Choose to come instead in the late autumn or winter - when magical crisp, clear days often enhance the natural backdrop - and even the most beaten paths and over-visited sights can be refreshingly uncluttered.

Not everyone sees the region through the same rose-tinted, lake-reflected, spectacles. The small-scale, parochial Englishness that attracts so many has repelled others. Aldous Huxley thought it to be "on the pettiest scale, miserably small and hole-and-cornery" (Eyeless in Gaza; 1936) and it's true that, on the world stage, the Lake District barely registers as a natural attraction (though it has been nominated as a World Heritage Site). Others berate the slavish attention many visitors give to knocking off compendious lists of lakeland peaks and routes with "every last insignificant feature labelled and smugly celebrated" (Ian McEwan, Amsterdam; 1988). There's an element of truth in this, though it's hardly a novel point of view - two centuries ago, Wordsworth was already making fun of those following the early guidebooks without actually looking at the scenery they were reading about.

Perhaps more to the point is that the reality of Lake District life and experience often falls short of the idealized image. The sheer number of visitors overwhelms the 40,000 or so locals and makes some of the most popular villages even busier than the cities the tourists have come from. Between Easter and the end of the summer school holidays, you can expect crowded streets, circling traffic looking for parking space, and bumper-to-bumper queues on country lanes that were never designed for motorized vehicles. Accommodation is often over-subscribed, while the most popular hiking trails have been turned into virtual motorways of hillside erosion. Locals, meanwhile, are confronted with a collapse of traditional industries, from mining to farming, which the relatively short tourist season goes only some way to replacing; while the demand for holiday homes deprives the region's future generations of affordable accommodation. It's a circle that's unlikely to be squared given the manifest attractions of the region to outsiders.

A word about the area covered by this book. Most of what people usually refer to as the Lake District - or simply the Lakes - lies within the Lake District National Park, established in 1951. At 880 square miles, it's England's largest national park, yet at a mere 30 miles across and easily reached off the M6 motorway it's hardly inaccessible - which partly explains its popularity. The National Park, in turn, falls entirely within the county of Cumbria, formed in 1974 from the historic counties of Cumberland and Westmorland, and the northern part of Lancashire. This book concentrates on the natural attractions, towns and villages within the National Park, including all the mountains and lakes and a short stretch of the Cumbrian coastline. Several important local towns - Kendal, Penrith, Cockermouth and Ulverston - and the religious foundations at Cartmel and Furness Abbey lie just outside the National Park boundary, and these are covered in a final chapter, recognizing that people's itineraries and interests don't just follow the somewhat arbitrary outline of the Park itself.

About this title

About the Author

Jules Brown first visited the Lake District when he was nine. He returned regularly throughout his childhood and as an adult. He is the author of The Rough Guide to the Lake District, Pocket Rough Guide Barcelona, and a coauthor of The Best Places to Stay in Britain on a Budget.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Where to go

Given its relatively small size, it's easy to see a great deal of the Lake District in just a few days, even if you are travelling by public transport or getting around on foot. The southern and central lakes and valleys get the most attention, as well as northern destinations such as Keswick, Derwent Water and Ullswater. Less visited (because they take more effort to reach) are the western lakes and valleys and the far northern reaches beyond Keswick. But determined hikers will be able to find quiet spots almost anywhere in the National Park. If you're pushed for time, you could tour around most of what's detailed below in a week, but you'd be doing precious little walking or relaxing. It's far better to pick a base and see what you can from there, hiking rather than driving between villages, and building in time for doing nothing more strenuous on occasion than taking out a rowboat or picnicking in a meadow.

Windermere is the largest lake with the most boating opportunities and features the National Park headquarters on its shores at Brockhole. The lake's towns - Windermere, Bowness and, especially, Ambleside - are among the region's busiest settlements and, given their choice of accommodation, cafs, restaurants and pubs, they make obvious bases. Even if they don't plan to stay there, most people at least pass by Windermere on the way to Grasmere and the famous Wordsworth houses of Rydal Mount and Dove Cottage, or to pretty Hawkshead and Beatrix Potter's house at Hill Top. Nearby Coniston is perhaps the least attractive of all the lakeland villages, but it sits at the head of engaging Coniston Water which boasts the big draw of Brantwood, home of the critic and essayist John Ruskin, and of Grizedale Forest. Away from the main settlements and literary trail, there are renowned hikes, peaks and tarns in central Langdale, or calm rural pockets in the gentler hills and dales south of Windermere and Coniston.

On the whole, the scenery is more dramatic in the north, where four peaks - Scafell Pike, Scafell, Helvellyn and Skiddaw - top out at over 3000 feet, and several other equally famous mountains (including Great Gable and Blencathra) don't lag far behind. There are, of course, literally hundreds of other mountains, crags and fells to roam, while the quite different lakes of Derwent Water and Ullswater provide superb backdrops for a day's cruising and walking. Keswick, the main town in the north, is the one major lakeland settlement with real year-round character, and it makes a handy base for exploring: south through the precipitous delights of Borrowdale, a valley for which the word picturesque might have been invented; west over the forested Whinlatter Pass; or north around the little-visted region known as Back o' Skiddaw.

The summer crowds tend to thin out in the western side of the Park. Although Buttermere and Crummock Water see a fair amount of traffic, Wast Water, Ennerdale Water and Loweswater lie further off the beaten track. The only part of the Cumbrian coastline that lies within the National Park stretches twenty miles south from Ravenglass, an undistinguished village, but one which provides a bucolic route into the heart of dramatic Eskdale by either road or rail. Outside the National Park, most visitors make time for Kendal and its excellent museums, and the historic market towns of Ulverston, Penrith and Cockermouth, the last also famous as the birthplace of Wordsworth. For a glimpse of the erstwhile religious influence on the Lakes, Furness Abbey and the priory church in the attractive village of Cartmel, both on the southern flanks of the National Park, also demand attention.

Those are the lakeland highlights, though each chapter introduction does a more detailed job of picking out local attractions and offbeat destinations. If hiking and the great outdoors isn't your bag, it's tempting to say that you're on the wrong holiday, though the Lake District does have a fair amount to satisfy other interests. The region's literary connections are justly famous, though you may be surprised to find that it's not all Wordsworth, Coleridge and De Quincey: writers and poets as diverse as Sir Hugh Walpole, Norman Nicholson and John Ruskin have left their mark on the Lakes. There's an industrial history, too, which manifests itself in scattered mining works, scarred quarry sites, surviving mills (one still working at Stott Park) and a couple of old railway lines - Ravenglass to Eskdale, and Lakeside to Haverthwaite - now converted to tourist use. The Lake District also has one of the country's highest concentrations of classic rural pubs and inns, many of them former coaching inns dating back several hundred years. Finally, in summer, the region hosts many of its annual sports, festivals and events, many recently revived in the face of tourist interest, but nonetheless providing a fascinating snapshot of traditional rural life.

Edition details

• Publisher: Rough Guides
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 185828533X
• ISBN 13: 9781858285337
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 224