The Lake District
England's highest mountains, which barely pass nine hundred metres
- When to go
- September 14° · 17 rainy days
- Per day
- €€€€price 4 of 5
- How many days
- 4days
- For you
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- Right now
The Lake District is a national park in north-west England, with sixteen lakes and the country's highest peak at 978 metres. The numbers sound modest; the ground is not: the paths are steep, the weather turns within an hour, and here you either walk in rain or you do not walk.
The park divides valley by valley, and you pick one or two, not all. The south around Windermere is the most accessible and the busiest, with boats and a train that reaches the lake. The north around Keswick and Derwentwater is more open and less managed, with better day walks. The west, around Wasdale, is the wildest and needs a car.
This is also literary country: William Wordsworth lived at Grasmere and his Dove Cottage is a museum, while Beatrix Potter left Hill Top farm along with much of the land she had been buying up to keep it from being built on. She left the National Trust over four thousand acres, which is why that part of the park has never been built on.
Weather is the only thing that needs planning. The western side of the park is among the wettest places in Britain, with over three thousand millimetres of rain a year on the highest ground. That does not mean you stay away — it means a waterproof jacket, and a plan where every day has a wet-weather version.
What to see in The Lake District
Derwentwater
The lake at Keswick, with a launch calling at seven jetties. The walk round takes four hours and is flat.
Windermere
England's largest lake, in the south of the park. Easiest to reach by train and therefore the busiest.
Scafell Pike
England's highest point, 978 metres. Four to five hours up, and easy to lose the path in cloud.
Keswick and Castlerigg
The town that works as a northern base, with a stone circle on the hill above. Free, and mostly empty in the morning.
Dove Cottage
Wordsworth's house at Grasmere, with a garden and museum. Small, and better than it sounds.
Hill Top
Beatrix Potter's farm, left as it was. Timed entry with a daily cap on visitors.
Two things you probably did not know
Beatrix Potter used the money from her Peter Rabbit books to buy fifteen farms in the Lake District to keep them from being built on. She left them to the National Trust, some four thousand acres, and so shaped how the area looks today.
Wastwater is the deepest lake in England, seventy-nine metres, with its bed below sea level. Scafell Pike above it is England's highest peak, at only 978 metres.
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Within reach from here: Liverpool, York and The Cotswolds
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