Designated on 9 May 1951
The jewel in England’s rural crown, home of poets and wild men, the Lake District has inspired story and song for generations. It’s the home of England’s highest mountain, its deepest lake and its largest lake, as well as countless tarns, dubs, rivers and streams that fill the views from its peaks with shimmering light.
In this guide, we take a look at some of the places to enjoy its scenery, history and culture, from terrifying ridges and lung-busting climbs, to wrestling matches, pencils, puddings and gentle trips in burnished wooden boats that chug from shore to shore.
Start/endpoints: Hassness bus stop
Start/endpoints: Hassness bus stop
Distance: 4.5 mi, elevation: 560ft, difficulty rating: 2/5
Start/endpoints: Hassness bus stop
Apart from the chance of a little mud and one short section on a B road, this is an easy loop that gives you some stunning views without too much climbing. You’ll be looking AT the peaks rather than from them, but Buttermere’s beauty means you don’t miss out and you get to pass through the Hassness Tunnel, a passage cut into a rock wall that would otherwise block the path. You can start from Buttermere or Gatesgarth, but this is a very popular route so either go early or take the Stagecoach 77 bus out of town (towards Gatesgarth) and get off at the Hassness/Dalesgarth Guest House stop. A little way down the road towards Gatesgarth you’ll find a footpath to the lake from which you can join the trail at what everyone starting from town would call its midpoint.
Start/endpoints: Hawse End Landing Stage
Start/endpoints: Hawse End Landing Stage
Distance: 3.5mi Elevation: 1480ft Difficulty rating 3/5
Start/endpoints: Hawse End Landing Stage
From Keswick, you can walk a gentle circuit around Derwentwater, looking out at the islands which dot its surface from shady viewpoints. If you fancy something a little more demanding though, hop aboard a launch from town and jump out at Hawse End. From here, the path takes you up Skelgill Bank in a series of switchbacks, before tracking along a ridge then climbing again to the summit of Catbells. A slight loop on the way down brings you back along the lake shore and you can always take a boat back to Keswick from either High or Low Brandlehow if Hawse End feels like a few steps too far.
Start/endpoints: More? bakery
Start/endpoints: More? bakery
Distance: 6.5mi Elevation: 889ft Difficulty rating: 2/5
Start/endpoints: More? bakery
Staveley is in the south-east corner of the park, which isn’t its most mountainous region, so this is a short and easy hike which makes a perfect morning send off if you’re travelling home south and want to grab a last bit of lakes before you go. The dubs (possibly from Danish dyb, meaning deep, but used in Scots to refer to muddy puddles) is a small man-made lake fed by mountain streams and isolated from the major rivers, making it free of the water quality problems which sadly afflict some of the major lakes. In a few hours, you can hike out, swim for a bit and be back at the More? bakery, where artisanal pastry and superb coffee will make this the perfect end to your trip.
Start/endpoints: Glenridding
Start/endpoints: Glenridding
Distance 9.5mi Elevation: 3250ft Difficulty rating 5/5
Start/endpoints: Glenridding
If lake loops and footpaths aren’t for you, then take on one of the Lake District’s most intimidating routes. If you’re visiting in school holidays this is one of the few “big hikes” that you might find less crowded, as it’s pretty challenging and will warn off a lot of casual strollers. For much of the route, it’s little different to a lot of ascents in the Lakes, but where it gets interesting is Striding Edge. The traverse across the razor-thin ridge is a bit of a scramble but while it isn’t very technical, the drop to the side can make your head spin. The whole hike, as with most mountain walks of course, is one to attempt only in decent visibility and a favourable forecast. If you’re feeling really energetic, throw in detours on the descent to Lower Man or Catstye Cam for some stunning viewpoints.
Start/Endpoints: Rydal Road car park, Ambleside
Start/Endpoints: Rydal Road car park, Ambleside
Distance: 10mi Elevation: 3543ft Difficulty rating: 4/5
Start/Endpoints: Rydal Road car park, Ambleside
A double ridge climb that’ll test your thighs on the way up and your knees on the way down (or rather ways, plural), this is a classic piece of Lake District hiking, with breathtaking views your reward for perseverance. There are some boggy sections, some scrambling and potential for getting lost, especially when coming off the summit of Fairfield itself and doubly so if the fog rolls in. It’s well worth taking a compass! After a descent via Nab Scar, you find yourself back on the level and only a short amble from Ambleside. There are several good pubs but coming from the north, you’ll reach the Golden Rule or The Flying Fleece first, and you’re not going to want to keep walking, are you?
© Lauren SimmondsDID YOU KNOW?
The Lake District, in its entirety, is a World Heritage Site because of its internationally famous landscape and rich cultural background, which stretches back to the Romantic poets like William Wordsworth and Robert Southey
Booths are a local institution that it feels wrong to call a chain of supermarkets. They have locations across Cumbria and five inside the park - in Kendal, Keswick, Penrith, Windermere and Ulverston. They’re great places to stock up on high-quality ingredients for picnics or your own home cooking and their premium packed lunches are perfect for long days out.
With the launches on Derwentwater stopping at the bottom of the garden, Mary Mount Hotel is a lovely place to chug over to from Keswick for lunch, or to stay for a few days. From the restaurant and bar, there are beautiful views of Catbells and great wildlife watching - red squirrels have even been spotted in the trees. What’s more, it’s on the route of the 78 Borrowdale bus, an open top tourer. So whether you arrive on foot, by boat or on the bus, you get almost as good a view on the journey there as you do from the hotel itself.
There are plenty of fancy places to eat and drink in the Lake District, but this humble YHA might just have a better setting than any of them. The “garden”, a purpose built terrace, runs right to the edge of Windermere with an unobstructed view across the water. If you happen to be staying here, you’ll end up on that terrace at both ends of the day, but food is only served to walk-in guests from 11am until half eight. Right from the garden, you can make a ten-minute walk to National Trust’s Stagshaw Gardens or hit the trail to Wansfell Pike. If you’ve got a good spot on the terrace though, the chances of you making it further than the bar are slim.
For a grand estate on which food and sourcing are taken very seriously, this is a much more relaxed place than you’d think. Dropping in for breakfast or brunch is a pleasure, there’s a good kids menu and the garden itself is lovely for a wander. If you’re after something even more laid back, the Laal Hut (from the Cumbrian word for little) now serves light bites, drinks and delicious Northern Bloc ice cream.
The little village of Staveley is the base for a team of artisanal bakers to create wonders. From the sourdough based on a 16-year old starter to the oozing brownies and soft croissants, everything is made with love and skill. If you arrive at the station, you’ll find it on the other side of town, across main street in a business park surrounded by outdoors shops, so you can browse for gear after you’ve fuelled up.
While you might find these gooey delights in shops across the country, a pilgrimage (with obligatory souvenir) to the place where it all began is a delicious outing. The Cartmel Sticky Toffee Pudding was invented here over 30 years ago. Although the dish itself is older than that, the idea of packaging them up to go was new and the recipe was artfully perfected. The team still make every one by hand in small batches using only natural ingredients and the puddings have been lauded by culinary luminaries from Nigella Lawson to Rick Stein.
© Jon RobertsDID YOU KNOW?
There’s actually only one body of water called a lake in the Lake District - Bassenthwaite Lake. The others are all meres, waters and so on. It’s a sneaky technicality and a handy one to keep in your back pocket for pub quizzes.
The Lake District is unquestionably the most popular National Park in the UK, beloved by travellers from around the world, but it wasn’t always so. Early modern visitors considered it an intimidating landscape, with Celia Fiennes commenting on the ”inaccessible high rocky barren hills which hang over one’s head in some places and appear very terrible” in the diary of her ride up and down the length of England in 1698.
Around 30 years later, Daniel Defoe called Westmorland’s landscape, “the wildest, most barren and frightful of any that I have passed over in England, or even Wales,” a sleight which probably didn’t endear him to the Welsh. Then, towards the end of the 18th century, with war making Europe a less enticing place to travel, the Lake District came into its own. In 1778 Thomas West produced A Guide to the Lakes, which listed a number of particularly striking viewpoints he called “stations”. These then became so busy that buildings were erected at some of them to facilitate visitors, which just goes to show you can’t blame Instagram for everything. The remains of Claife Station can still be found on Windemere’s western shore.
After another 30 years, Wordsworth enters the scene. With a notable lack of creativity for a renowned poet, he published his own Guide to the Lakes in 1810, and its rampant popularity helped make the region the nation’s wild darling. It was designated a National Park in May 1951, a month after the Peak District, and has been synonymous with natural beauty and outdoor freedom ever since.
From a base in Keswick, take a launch to the Nichol End landing and make the ten-minute walk to Lingholm Kitchen and Walled Garden for brunch. From there you can pick up the lake loop and even climb Catbells on an approach from the north. Or, for a more relaxing day, book a slot in the Fellside Sauna and watch tiny specks slowly climbing distant hills. The lake loop, or another launch, will bring you round to Mary Mount Hotel for afternoon tea or something stronger if the hiking didn’t go well. Idle there with views of the hills from the beautiful bar, before wending your way home.
Getting right to the heart of the Lakes means having all of its history and culture at your fingertips. Wake up at YHA Ambleside and have breakfast down on the terrace right at the edge of the lake, then head west to Cathedral Cavern for an evocative taste of the park’s industrial history, coming back via Skelwith Force. Later, head for Wordsworth’s Grasmere home to find inspiration in the gardens where he walked. Follow that casual day with the Fairfield Horseshoe walk and you’ll have taken in a fine sweep of the winds and waters of the Lake District.
Let More? bakery in Staveley turn breakfast into something special and maybe pick up some supplies for the walk to Gurnal Dubs. Spend a pleasant few hours bathing in the pool, basking on the rocks and grazing on the superb cake you brought. Head over to Windermere for some classic scenery and a stop at the Jetty Museum, which documents the history of boats and boating on the lake. Just down the road, you can hop on a ferry and cross the water to Claife Station, where the remains of one of the first ever purpose-built tourist sites in the park still stands.
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