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Why Go? THE LAKE DISTRICT . .574 If it’s grandstand views you’re looking for, nowhere in Eng- Windermere & land can match Cumbria. It’s a place where the superlatives Bowness ...... 577 simply run dry – home to the nation’s longest and deepest Grasmere ...... 585 lakes, as well as its smallest church, steepest road, highest town and loftiest peak. The glaciers that carved out this Hawkshead ...... 586 landscape during the last ice age have long since melted, Coniston ...... 588 leaving behind a string of crags, fells and sparkling tarns Wasdale ...... 591 that form the core of one of ’s oldest national parks Ullswater & Around . .597 – the stunning Lake District, founded in 1951 and still con- sidered by many to be the spiritual heartland of English CUMBRIAN COAST . .598 hiking. Furness Abbey . . . . . 599 But there’s much more to this region than just fi ne views. NORTHERN & With a wealth of literary and artistic connections, a history EASTERN CUMBRIA . .600 stretching back over 5000 years and some of the halest and ...... 600 heartiest cooking anywhere in England, it’s packed with more natural appeal than almost anywhere else in Britain.

Best Places to Eat When to Go? Cumbria’s largest mountain festival is held in Keswick in » Punch Bowl Inn (p582 ) mid-May, while the Beer Festival in June welcomes ale » Jumble Room (p 586 ) afi cionados from across the globe. Ambleside’s traditional » Drunken Duck (p 587 ) sports day on the last Saturday in July features events such as houndtrailing and Cumbrian wrestling; Grasmere’s an- » Yanwath Gate Inn (p604 ) nual sports day takes place on the August Bank Holiday. In November, the world’s greatest liars congregate on Santon Best Places to Stay Bridge for their annual fi bbing contest. » Moss Grove Organic (p585 ) » Waterhead Hotel (p 582 ) » Yewfield (p587 ) » Howe Keld (p594 ) » Summer Hill Country House (p 590 ) THE LAKE DISTRICT & CUMBRIA 571

or 1:25,000 1:25,000 (http://www , which cuts west cally made for walk- fi , Ordnance Survey’s Superwalker Superwalker , and Alfred Wain- 0871 520 0124; www.sherpa Coast to Coast Packhorse Coast to Coast % ( series maps, although many although maps, series

scrambling (a cross between cross (a scrambling ve- to seven-day hike of 82 miles. Walk Coast to Coast fi . Carlisle is on the main Virgin West Coast ghyll teering to quad biking, fell running National Express coaches run direct from Getting There & Away A Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells ng are popular too, especially around erally for the opt Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 fi

017683-71777; www.c2cpackhorse.co.uk) 017683-71777; Check out www.lakedistrictoutdoors. If you’re planning on anything more than than more anything on planning you’re If There are endless fell trails to choose Door-to-door baggage services can be % OTHER ACTIVITIES OTHER coasteering and river canyoning along a wind- and kayaking Sailing, ravine). steep sur Windermere, Derwent and Water Coniston. co.uk for the low-down. maps and guidebooks, including Collins’ Fellranger Lakeland Pathfinder Guides wright’s classic hand-drawn, seven-volume set, Landranger Harvey prefer hikers (recently updated by experienced hiker and Wainwright devotee Chris Jesty). a low-level stroll in the Lakes, decent- a quality map is essential. Walkers have a choice of two map publishers: traditionalists gen line from London Euston to Manchester to to Manchester to Euston London from line from hourly roughly running trains with Glasgow, both north District, the Lake to get and south. To regular where at Oxenholme, change need to you Windermere. and Kendal into west travel trains from trains direct three at least are There London and Glasgow to Windermere, Carlisle and Kendal. Count on seven hours between London Victoria and Windermere. TRAIN TRAIN Cumbria is a haven for adrenalin-fuelled and climbing rock from ranging activities, orien and 8 BUS ( Van Sherpa .thecoasttocoastwalk.info/) van.com) ers and clearly mark major trail routes well as(as all fells 214 detailedAlfred by Wainwright in his classic walking guides). from, but if for something you’re up more challenging, about how Alfred Wain- wright’s maps, which are speci to east from St Bees to Robin Hood’s Bay Bay Hood’s Robin to Bees St from east to in North Yorkshire, a distance 191 of miles. The Cumbrian section passes through Hon- ister Pass, Grasmere, Patterdale, Kirkby Stephen and Shap en route to the Yorkshire Dales, a useful; contact (C2C; ces sell ces sell int int and ffi fl (www.cumbriaway ces stock a cy- ffi

c-free routes. Bike Bike routes. c-free ffi from via via Whitehaven from between Ulverston, Keswick Ulverston, between Sea to Sea Cycle Route Cumbria Way Cumbria rst national parks in 1951, and the fi Activities towers, built to protect the inhabitants

Long-distance bikers can follow the During the Middle Ages Cumbria marked marked Cumbria Ages Middle the During The area was a centre for the Romantic rst to champion the area’s natural beauty WALKING CYCLING hire starts at around £15 per day. 72-mile and Carlisle, and the Cumbrian section of 140-mile the the northern Lake District en route to the the to route en District Lake northern the North and Newcastle. many For people, hiking on the fells is the Trails visit. District Lake a for reason main range from low-level rambles to full-blown mountain ascents; most tourist o mountain biking on the fells, but you’ll you’ll but fells, the on 2 biking Cycling is popular in Cumbria, especially mountain need nerves of steel legs) (and on the more challenging routes. Cycle-hire shops are widespread, and tourist o cling map showing tra History The earliest settlers arrived in the LakeDis- trict 5000 years ago, building stone circles like Castleriggand quarrying stone around Stonethwaite and Seatoller. The region was subsequently occupied by Celts, Angles, Vikings and Romans, and during the Dark Ages marked thecentre of the kingdom of Rheged, which extended across much of modern Cumbria, Dumfries and Galloway in Scotland, and was annexed by neighbouring Northumbria sometime in the 8th century. the start of ‘The Debatable Lands’, the wild frontier between England and Scotland. Bands of Scottish raiders known as Bor- der Reivers regularly plundered the area, prompting the construction of distinctive pele from border raiders, and the stout fortress- es at Carlisle, Penrith and Kendal. and century, 19th the during movement Quincey de Coleridge, including writers and William Wordsworth were among the fi above its potential for industrial resources (a cause later taken by other up literary lumi- Beatrix and Ruskin John including naries, the The Lake District of became one Potter). nation’s modern county of Cumbria wasformed from the districts old of and West- morland in 1974. www.c2c-guide.co.uk) cycleroute.co.uk)