manchester

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regional sightseeing

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Friday, 25th July 2003

The Lake District

The Lake District is almost painfully beautiful. It has captured the poetic imagination of the world ever since the great romantic poets of the late C18 and early C19 discovered within it a balance of nature: lakes, mountains, forests and meadows. William Wordsworth, Samuel Coleridge, Robert Southey, and later John Ruskin and Beatrix Potter and others penned verses and books to celebrate the area, and visitors have been pouring in ever since.

Judicious use of Ordnance Survey maps allows the walker to find empty corners in this popular district: the key is to pick the peripheral areas. Making the extra effort to get over to Wastwater, Ennerdale, Buttermere and Bassenthwaite pays dividends in terms of isolation. The High Street fells along to Haweswater and down to Kentdale and Longsleddale, is the land of waterfalls, golden eagles, deer and very few people. Another much underestimated area is Furness, south of Coniston, where the hills are gentler but the sea inlets and wooden valleys compensate, with Broughton in Furness an unsung delight. Both Haweswater and Thirlmere are Manchester reservoirs. The water that comes out of your tap in the city comes from 80 miles (100 km) north. The highest mountains in England are in the Lake District, with Scafell Pike a few metres higher than Helvellyn.

History is everywhere, from Castlerigg Stone Circle near Keswick to the Roman fort at Hardknott, the Priory at Cartmel and Wordsworth's Dove Cottage at Grasmere. Cartmel contains the prettiest horse racecourse in these islands.