Britain's Lake District National Park

Nature and humanity come together In one of the best landscapes on earth

Great Britain has no Alps or Tetons, no raging rivers like the Colorado or empty wildernesses like the ones at the center of Idaho. Vast distances and spectacular landscapes are more the province of younger, bigger nations like the U.S., Australia, Canada and Argentina.

Yet Great Britain has a tract in the northwest corner of England that, despite lacking any superlative peaks and stupendously sized lakes, and despite having many old towns and hamlets strewn among its acreage, is probably one of the most beautiful landscapes on earth.

Thirlmere in Autumn

The place is called Lake District National Park, and of all the national parks that The Cultured Traveler has and will profile, this one seems to encompass more attributes and command more affection than any other. It is so charming and extravagant in its variety that it is easily the most popular national park in the U.K.

Located in Cumbria County in England’s northwest corner, at the eastern edge of the Irish Sea, about 65 air miles north of Liverpool, Lake District National Park is an 885-square mile collection of alternating mountain ridges and valleys, often with long, finger-like lakes in their basins. It is the largest  natural preserve in the U.K. and a huge tract by that country’s standards: If the U.S. were to set aside a national park that was as proportionate to its total area as Lake District National Park is to the U.K., it would cover an area the size of Maine, about 35,000 square miles.

Yet the tallest mountain here is only 3,200 feet high, and would be no more than an unremarkable foothill in the Sierra Nevada or Himalayas. But it and its companion mountains rear abruptly from their bases, steep-sided and clad in scree and loose rock that makes them a challenge to hikers. Weather can change suddenly on these “short” mountains, going from sunny to rainy and icy – and treacherous – in minutes.

The mountains are also bellwethers of the seasons. Bracken, a northern clime’s equivalent to the maquis of France and the chaparral of California, grows among the broken rocks of these old peaks, In summer, the plants shimmer yellow-green in the sun, and in autumn, turn to brown, joining the flaming reds of the area’s oak forests to signal winter’s approach. Come spring, the bracken emerges tender green from under the snowmelt.

Blea Tarn

The park’s dozen large lakes and score of smaller lakes are petite compared to Canada or Chile’s, and would be lost among them. (The largest, Windermere, covers only six square miles, an area about one-fourth the size of Manhattan.) But there they stand, glorious products of glaciation, surrounded by mountains and often forests, serene and as beautiful in their small, intimate ways as much larger waters. So the landscape overcomes its lack of theatrical, in-your-face features and attracts instead through its proportions, accessibility and the almost theatrical play of light and shadow – a gift of Great Britain’s often unpredictable maritime climate.

Another natural highlight is Ennerdale, at a far, unfrequented corner of the park, a trail-laced tract of conifer forest that is surprisingly large, given Great Britain’s massive deforestation.

The Human Element

For the British, who more than any other nationality adore the long hike, the pleasant amble and the brisk walk as three of the things people were put on earth to do, the park is the Holy Grail of ambulation. But it takes more than pleasant byways and scenery to attract people to this far corner of England. The Lake District protects and preserves more than just the natural landscape. Like so many European parks, it accepts and accommodates the human element, in this case towns and settlements going back hundreds of years. Along with the area’s woods, tors, glens and lakes, there are farms, pastures, medieval villages and castles, weathered stone fences and bridges, old dirt roads, and abandoned graphite mines and rock quarries. Walking here is also a trip through an old human landscape.

Still, the area isn’t overwhelmed with people. Small towns are very small – Coniston, Bowness, Grasmere and Newby Bridge, four of the park’s most notable settlements, all hover at 1,000 to 1,200 residents each. Keswick (5,000) and Ambleside (3,500) are not that much bigger. Biggest of all, and at the geographic center of things, is Windermere, population 8,500, sited on the shore of Lake Windermere. It's the biggest village in the park. Most of these places are old market towns, laid out in a medieval architectural pattern with narrow streets and generous public squares. The cottage-style architecture of the houses has been imitated worldwide, especially in the U.S. in such places as Carmel-by-the-Sea in California.

But the ancient age and charming size of humanity’s presence here begs mention of the strongest attraction the Lake District holds for many people: It was home to some of Britain’s greatest literary figures, including the romantic poets William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the immortal children’s storyteller Beatrix Potter and the philosopher John Ruskin.

The aura of romanticism, combined with a preserved human and natural landscape, invite slow exploration. Walking paths here are as gentle or demanding as personal taste desires. It is possible for the most robust trekker and the most out-of-shape putterer to have a wonderful time here. And even though it’s a small park compared to Yellowstone or Canada’s Wood Buffalo, a traveler dedicated to sipping rather than gulping could spend a lifetime exploring and savoring it.

– Patrick Totty