Overview

Lake District National Park is the largest National Park in England. As the name implies, this park is loaded with lakes, tarns, waterways, mountains, fells and woods.

Add to trip Create accomplishment

Directions

Plan Around Overview

A good stop is not just something to read about. Once it belongs on the day, move into a saved trip and build the route around it.

Add to trip View park guide

Use this detail page to confirm that the stop is worth it, then carry that decision into a trip draft while the park context is still fresh.

Overview Details

Lake District National Park is the largest National Park in England, coming in at 912 square miles (2362 sq. km) and taking up approximately 1 percent of the nation's total land area. As the name implies, this park is loaded with lakes, tarns (a mountain lake formed by a glacier) and waterways with 16 named lakes and 53 tarns in total, but the landscape is made more dramatic - some say romantic - by the mountains, fells (a local name for mountains) and woods. Wastwater, the deepest lake in England at 243 feet (74 meters) is here, and the mountains are the highest in England. The 10 tallest peaks are found within the park including Scafell Pike, the highest at 3,209 feet (978 meters); Scafell, at 3,163 feet (964 meters), Helvellyn, at 3,117 feet (950 meters); and six others that top out at more than 900 meters. Of the 50 highest peaks in England, only six are outside the National Park. This landscape reveals why two things happened here. First, Romantic poet William Wordsworth wrote "A Guide through the District of the Lakes," a travel guide to this area, in 1810. Second, the landscape that so moved Wordsworth - and countless poets and painters to follow - moved England to create this mammoth National Park in 1951, the second such park in the nation (the first being Peak District to the south). The park sits fully within the county of Cumbria and takes up nearly all of the informal Lake District. Unlike National Parks in the United States, National Parks in the U.K. are owned jointly between the National Park Authority, the National Trust, Forestry Commission, private landowners and other groups. Much of the land - around half the park - is wild or uncultivated and is open to visitors; other areas - read: cultivated land - is restricted, so when visiting, a good rule of thumb is to stick to public trails. Throughout the Park you'll find the expected stunning views but also a deep history. There are stone circles dating back at least 5,000 years, roads built by the Romans, and the cultural leftovers of Viking invasion. Cultural events - Cumberland and Westmorland wrestling, long distance races and fell runs - and foodways - Cumberland sausage and rum butter - are still important to the 40,000 or so residents of the region.

Difficulty

Open

Distance

N/A

Estimated time

N/A

Region

Learn About the Park