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Search - The Rough Guide to The English Lake District, 1st Edition (Rough Guides)

The Rough Guide to The English Lake District 1st Edition - Rough Guides
Author: Jules Brown

Introduction The Lake District is England's most celebrated, most visited and most hyped scenic area. Tucked into a bulge between the industrial cities of northwest England and the Scottish borders, the small region is literally irresistible to the sixteen million visitors a year who pour in to experience its famous lakes, picturesque... more » villages and alpine landscape. To many, the lure is of a misty-eyed English past - quiet country lanes, ivy-clad inns, agricultural shows and sheep- dog trials - while others seek to tick off English superlatives, including the country's largest and deepest lakes (Windermere and Wast Water respectively). As the Lake District also contains England's highest mountain (Scafell Pike), it should come as no surprise to find that the central lakeland crags - the birthplace of British rock climbing - lure climbers from far and wide. Meanwhile, keen hikers and Sunday strollers flow in year-round to conquer another peak or to follow in the footsteps of chroniclers from Wordsworth to Wainwright. Indeed, the sundry pastoral images could hardly be better known, whether bolstered by the siren words of the Lake Poets or embedded in the minds of the nation's children who grow up with the lakeland tales of Beatrix Potter, Arthur Ransome and John Cunliffe's Postman Pat. There's no shortage, then, of attractions: sixteen major lakes, hundreds of steeply pitched mountains, scores of waterfalls and valleys, and a dozen major literary sites. Indeed, it's hard to think of a region in Britain with a similar breadth of scenery (wild fells to walled grazing land, glacial lakes to forested valleys) in such a small area. And although the Lake District might appear too popular for its own good, tourist numbers are concentrated in fairly specific areas. Even on the busiest of summer days, it's relatively easy to escape the crowds by climbing to the higher fells and more remote valleys. There are parts of the region, particularly in the north and west, where tourism is still decidedly low-key. Choose to come instead in the late autumn or winter - when magical crisp, clear days often enhance the natural backdrop - and even the most beaten paths and over-visited sights can be refreshingly uncluttered. Not everyone sees the region through the same rose-tinted, lake-reflected, spectacles. The small-scale, parochial Englishness that attracts so many has repelled others. Aldous Huxley thought it to be "on the pettiest scale, miserably small and hole-and-cornery" (Eyeless in Gaza; 1936) and it's true that, on the world stage, the Lake District barely registers as a natural attraction (though it has been nominated as a World Heritage Site). Others berate the slavish attention many visitors give to knocking off compendious lists of lakeland peaks and routes with "every last insignificant feature labelled and smugly celebrated" (Ian McEwan, Amsterdam; 1988). There's an element of truth in this, though it's hardly a novel point of view - two centuries ago, Wordsworth was already making fun of those following the early guidebooks without actually looking at the scenery they were reading about. Perhaps more to the point is that the reality of Lake District life and experience often falls short of the idealized image. The sheer number of visitors overwhelms the 40,000 or so locals and makes some of the most popular villages even busier than the cities the tourists have come from. Between Easter and the end of the summer school holidays, you can expect crowded streets, circling traffic looking for parking space, and bumper-to-bumper queues on country lanes that were never designed for motorized vehicles. Accommodation is often over-subscribed, while the most popular hiking trails have been turned into virtual motorways of hillside erosion. Locals, meanwhile, are confronted with a collapse of traditional industries, from mining to farming, which the relatively short tourist season goes only some way to replacing; while the demand for holiday homes deprives the region's future generations of affordable accommodation. It's a circle that's unlikely to be squared given the manifest attractions of the region to outsiders. A word about the area covered by this book. Most of what people usually refer to as the Lake District - or simply the Lakes - lies within the Lake District National Park, established in 1951. At 880 square miles, it's England's largest national park, yet at a mere 30 miles across and easily reached off the M6 motorway it's hardly inaccessible - which partly explains its popularity. The National Park, in turn, falls entirely within the county of Cumbria, formed in 1974 from the historic counties of Cumberland and Westmorland, and the northern part of Lancashire. This book concentrates on the natural attractions, towns and villages within the National Park, including all the mountains and lakes and a short stretch of the Cumbrian coastline. Several important local towns - Kendal, Penrith, Cockermouth and Ulverston - and the religious foundations at Cartmel and Furness Abbey lie just outside the National Park boundary, and these are covered in a final chapter, recognizing that people's itineraries and interests don't just follow the somewhat arbitrary outline of the Park itself.

ISBN-13: 9781858285337
ISBN-10: 185828533X
Publication Date: 7/1/2000
Pages: 224
Edition: 1
Rating:

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Publisher: Rough Guides
Book Type: Paperback
Members Wishing: 0
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