First Time Visiting the Lake District?
ARE you coming on your first visit to the Lake District? You might even be coming from overseas, like a lot of our visitors now. What have you heard about the Lakes, and what should you expect?
A Bit of History
This is the most beautiful corner of England, with an incredible variety of scenery packed into a small area. A series of volcanoes hundreds of millions of years ago, followed by glacial action in the last Ice Age, created this unusual landscape of soaring peaks and beautiful lakes. It’s contained within the Lake District National Park, which is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Lots of Lakes but Only One Lake
This isn’t a riddle. All but one of the major lakes are called meres or waters, as in Grasmere, Windermere, Ullswater. Only Bassenthwaite is named Lake. The longest – in England, not just the Lake District – is Windermere. There’s a 26-mile marathon that takes place around its shores. The deepest is Wastwater, 74m (243 feet). Our favourite is Ullswater, which twists and turns for about 7 miles (11k) below some towering mountain peaks. You can sail on some of the lakes, swim in most of them, but there’s restrictions on paddleboarding, kayaking and small craft on some of the smaller lakes. Check with us when you get here. We have timetables for the steamers on Windermere and Ullswater.
Climb Every Mountain
Visitors come here for our hills as well as the water. We call them fells, but they look like mountains. Technically, both geologists and the Oxford English Dictionary maintain that a mountain is at least 2,000 feet (or 610 metres) high. Ask a child to draw a mountain, and the result might be a triangular silhouette (maybe inspired by a piece of Toblerone), something like Great Gable. Which definitely qualifies at 2949 feet (899 m). But what about the distinctive and instantly recognisable outline of Helm Crag, which rises a mere 1,329 feet (405 metres) above the village of Grasmere? And what you call a mountain depends on your location. Something you call a mountain in the UK wouldn’t necessarily be looked on as a mountain in the Himalaya.
To confuse you still further, you’ll hear them described as Wainwrights. This is because Alfred Wainwright (1907-1991) catalogued 214 fells in a series of seven hand-written and hand-drawn guidebooks which have become classics. It takes most people several years to climb every one, though the current record for running them all in one continuous journey is 5 days, 12 hours and 14 minutes. That’s superhuman. When you get here, come and talk to us about the best, the biggest, the most convenient, the most scenic, to climb while you’re here.
We Have a Lot of Weather
If it’s your first time in the Lakes, you’ll need to know what kit to bring with you. We have a lot of weather! So while we do get a lot of rain (how else would the lakes fill up?) we also get a lot of sunshine, some snow and frost (with amazingly clear skies), and some days when it’s really warm in the valley but a lot colder at the top of a fell.
So we recommend layers. Lightweight thermal base layers, fleece sweaters, sturdy trousers (not jeans...when they get wet, they become very heavy, and you become very cold and uncomfortable), and good waterproofs. But if this isn’t your usual wardrobe, don’t worry. You can buy absolutely everything you’ll need, from hiking boots to sun hats, right here in the Lake District. You’ll also find these places are staffed by experts who can tell you what you might need depending on what you want to do, where you want to walk, or run, or climb, or swim. And in the evenings, it’s informal dress just about everywhere in the Lakes.
Our Towns and Villages
If it’s your first visit to the Lake District, you need to know the best places to visit, for tourist attractions, for shopping, and for history and heritage. Here in Windermere near to the Cedar Manor we have a small town full of useful places to eat, drink and shop. There’s the headquarters of the global homeware brand Lakeland with its own superstore, and there’s tiny gift and craft shops specialising in art, crafts...and chocolates.
A mile down the road is the more touristy Bowness, on the shore of Windermere the lake. Here’s where you can board a cruiser for the sail of a lifetime, or just sit outside a bar or cafe and watch the world go by.
Nearby is Ambleside, still known as the anorak capital of the UK for its wide range of outdoor shops. We love the independent Cunningham Outdoors, opposite the town’s most visited attraction, the tiny Bridge House.
Go to Grasmere for poetry, art and gingerbread. William Wordsworth lived here, at several different homes including Dove Cottage, and you can visit them. There’s a beautiful gallery dedicated to the Lake District’s most famous painters, the Heaton Cooper family. And the original Grasmere gingerbread– more like a cake than a biscuit – is still baked here to a secret recipe. Then head to Hawkshead for a traffic-free village with cobbled streets, attractive pubs and cafes.
You will know of Beatrix Potter, who created the Peter Rabbit series of children’s illustrated stories. Her house isn’t far away, at Sawrey, but there’s often a queue to get in. Instead, why not try the lovely Armitt Museum in Ambleside where they have a lot of her original work. Or the delightful World of Beatrix Potter Attraction in Bowness.