Lakes, forests, fells, Beatrix Potter & William Wordsworth - The English Lake District 422
What and Why
The Lake District is a scenic region in Northwest England, which is a very popular holiday destination. It is famous for its lakes, forests and mountains (fells, from Old Norse meaning 'mountain'). The very beautiful sceneries and landscapes have inspired countless writers poets, and artists including William Wordsworth. The Romantic engagement with the Lake District generated new ideas about the relationship between humanity and its environment, including the recognition of harmonious landscape beauty and the validity of emotional response by people to their landscapes.
The whole areas oozes a romantic and honeymoon-like holiday atmosphere and millions of holiday-makers flock to the almost synonymous Lake District National Park especially during summer. Almost everywhere you sit becomes a picturesque photospot. The highest point of the United Kingdom, Scafell Pike, is located inside the Park, which stands at 978 m.
The main port of call is Windermere where the National Rail ends.
Toponymy
Windermere is thought to translate as 'Vinandr lake'. The specific has usually been identified with an Old Swedish personal name Vinandr while the root -mere is Old English for lake.
See
Lakes
The Park is officially 2,362 km2 in area, meaning the size of two Hong Kong. It contains within it two major towns Kendal and Windermere where most of the accommodations are located. Most of the other places are lakes, forests and wildernesses. Technically there are 16 lakes, 53 tarns and countless meres and waters inside the Park, each of equal beauty.
The most photographed features of the Park are clearly the lakes, including Windermere itself.
We mainly explored Windermere and were fully captivated by the beauty of the entire landscape, and we are talking about two grown men here.
Fells
We also ventured into Thirlmere, where one can find an exciting but easy hiking trail, with a good number waterfalls to explore.
Art
The Lake District is intimately associated with English literature of the 18th and 19th centuries CE. The most celebrated of them all is William Wordsworth whose poems were most famous. Wordsworth's poem 'I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud', was inspired by Ullswater, the second largest lake in the Park and remains one of the most famous. Beatrix Potter was living inside the Park and wrote many of her famous Peter Rabbit books in the Lake District.
Eat and Drink
Cumberland sausage
Local dishes include Cumberland sausage and roast lamb, and there are plenty of food stalls serving the delicacy.
The sausage is a pork sausage that originated from Cumbria, previously called Cumberland. It is traditionally very long, up to 50 cm, and rolled in a flat, circular coil, although now it is also being served in shorter version, as above from the food stalls, out of convenience. The distinctive feature is that the meat is chopped, not ground or minced, giving the sausage a chunky texture.
In 2011 CE, the sausage was granted the distinguished Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) status by the European Union.
Getting There and Around
National Rail does reach Windermere station, but that is about it. The rest must be driving. We drove all the way from Scotland and reach Windermere via M6 and then A6. There are a good number of national coach services inside the Park, but it deprives you of the freedom.
There is a beautiful coastal railway, travelling between Carlisle and Barrow-in-Furness that allows access to many of the rarely visited villages. This wonderland can give you a peaceful getaway for a few days.
UNESCO Inscription
Located in northwest England, the English Lake District is a mountainous area, whose valleys have been modelled by glaciers in the Ice Age and subsequently shaped by an agro-pastoral land-use system characterized by fields enclosed by walls. The combined work of nature and human activity has produced a harmonious landscape in which the mountains are mirrored in the lakes. Grand houses, gardens and parks have been purposely created to enhance the landscape’s beauty. This landscape was greatly appreciated from the 18th century onwards by the Picturesque and later Romantic movements, which celebrated it in paintings, drawings and words. It also inspired an awareness of the importance of beautiful landscapes and triggered early efforts to preserve them.
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