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Luxury Car Hire uk Lake District Guide

The Lake District is England's most hyped scenic area, and for good reasons. Within an area a mere thirty miles across, sixteen major lakes are squeezed between the steeply pitched faces of the country's highest mountains, an almost alpine landscape that's augmented by waterfalls and picturesque stone-built villages packed into the valleys. Most of what people refer to as the Lake District - or simply the Lakes - lies within the Lake District National Park. This, in turn, falls entirely within the north western county of Cumbria, formed in 1974 from the historic counties of Cumberland and Westmorland, and the northern part of Lancashire. Consequently Cumbria contains more than just its lakes, stretching south and west to the coast, and north to its county town of Carlisle, a place that bears traces of a pedigree that stretches back beyond the construction of Hadrian's Wall. To the east, Penrith and the Eden Valley separate the lakes from the near wilderness of the northern Pennines.

The heart of the region is Scafell, a volcanic dome that had already been weathered into its present shape before the last Ice Age, when glaciers flowed off its flanks to gouge their characteristic U-shaped valleys. As the ice withdrew, terminal moraines of sediment dammed the meltwater, so that the main lakes now radiate like immense spokes from the hub of Scafell. Human interaction has also played a significant part in the shaping of the Lake District. Before Neolithic peoples began to colonize the region around five thousand years ago, most of the now bare uplands were forested with pine and birch, while the valleys were blanketed with thickets of oak and alder. As these first settlers learned to shape flints into axes, they began to clear the upland forests, a process accelerated by the road-building Romans. An even greater impact was made by the Norse Vikings in the ninth and tenth centuries, who farmed the land extensively and left their mark on the local dialect: a mountain here is referred to as a "fell", a waterfall is a "force", streams are "becks", a mountain lake is a "tarn", while the suffix "-thwaite" indicates a clearing. In later centuries grazing flocks of sheep cropped the hills of their wild flowers, while charcoal-making and the mining of copper and graphite further altered the contours and vegetation.

The region remained a land apart for centuries, its features - rugged and isolated - mirrored in the characteristics of its inhabitants. Daniel Defoe thought it "eminent only for being the wildest, most barren and frightful of any that I have passed over" and, as he went on to point out, he'd been to Wales so he knew what he was talking about. Two factors spurred the first waves of tourism: the reappraisal of landscape brought about by such painters as Constable and the writings of Wordsworth and his contemporaries, and the outbreak of the French Revolution and its subsequent turmoil, which put paid to the idea of the continental GrandTour.At the same time, as the war pushed food prices higher, farmers began to reclaim the hillsides, a tendency sanctioned by the General Enclosure Act of 1801. Most of the characteristic dry-stone walls were built at this time, a development that alarmed Wordsworth, who wrote in his Guide to the Lakes that he desired "a sort of national property, in which every man has a right and interest who has an eye to perceive and a heart to enjoy." His wish finally came to fruition in 1951 when the government designated 880 square miles of the Lake District as England's largest national park.

On any scale, the National Park has been wildly successful, attracting millions of visitors every year to its famous lakes and picturesque villages. This, of course, has come at some price, mainly in terms of traffic and environmental pressure, which a forward-thinking integrated transport strategy is attempting to alleviate. There's always been a severe contrast, too, between the touristed villages of the Lakes and the old industrial towns of coastal West Cumbria, which have struggled in the past to attract visitors and investment. However, regeneration has been dramatic in recent years, with the reviving fortunes of places such as Whitehaven, Maryport and Barrow-in-Furness providing keen incentives to stray from the Lakes.

Lake District Getting around guide

National Express coaches connect London and Manchester Airport with Windermere, Ambleside, Grasmere and Keswick. Trains leave the West Coast main line at Oxenholme, north of Lancaster, for the branch line service to Kendal and Windermere. The only other places directly accessible by train are Penrith, further north on the West Coast line, and the towns along the Cumbrian coast, between Grange-over-Sands and Maryport. A Lakes Ranger (one day, £10) gives unlimited train travel between Lancaster, the Cumbrian coast and Windermere, plus free bus travel south of Keswick and a Windermere cruise. Of the lakes themselves, Windermere, Coniston Water, Derwent Water and Ullswater have useful cruise and ferry services the summer-season Crass Lakes Shuttle (£11 return) integrates boats and buses in a combined timetable that connects Windermere with Coniston.

Stagecoach is Cumbria's biggest local bus operator. Their Explorer Tickets (one-day £7.50, four-day £17, seven-day £25) are valid on the entire network and can be bought on the bus, while other combination tickets (picked out in the text) offer a variety of good deals. The two main bus services are the #555 (Kendal-Windermere-Ambleside-Grasmere-Keswick, with connections to Lancaster and Carlisle) and the open-top #599 (Kendal-Windermere-Bowness-Ambleside-Grasmere), but all routes are all spelled out in detail in the free Lakeland Explorer timetable or the Getting Around Cumbria and the Lake District timetable book, produced twice a year by Cumbria County Council; both are available from tourist offices and other outlets throughout the region. Traveline (daily 7am-8pm; 0870/608 2608, www.traveline.org.uk) can advise about all the region's bus, coach, rail and ferry services. Finally, the YHA operates a shuttle-bus service from Ambleside YHA to the Hawkshead, Coniston, Elterwater , Langdale and Grasmere hostels (Easter-Oct; £2.50 a journey; information on 0870/770 5672).

Windermere is a major bus terminus, with National Express and all local serv¬ices stopping outside Windermere train station. With a Bus & Boat ticket (.£6) you can travel from Windermere to Bowness and Ambleside on the open-top #599 and return by boat down the lake. A hundred yards away from the station at the top of Victoria Street stands the tourist office (daily: July & Aug 9am-7.30pm; rest of the year 9am-6pm; 015394/46499), which has money-exchange and room-booking services; you can also change money inside Windermere s post office on Crescent Road.

Kendal's train station is the first stop on the Windermere branch linejust five minutes from the Oxenholme main-line station. By catching bus #41 or #41A to the town hall from Oxenholme (Mon-Sat; every 20min) you can avoid the wait for the connecting train. Otherwise, head across the river and up Stramongate and Finkle Street to reach Highgate, a ten-minute walk. All buses (including National Express services) stop at the bus station on Blackball Road (off Stramongate). The tourist office 0uly & Aug Mon-Sat 9atn-6pm, Sun 10am-5pm; Sept-June Mon-Sat 9am-5pm, Sun 10am-4pm; Jan & Feb closed Sun; 01539/725758, www.kendaltown.org) is in the town hall on Highgate.

For information on all local and national bus serv¬ices, contact Traveline 0870/608 2608, www.traveline.org.uk.
Carlisle to: Appleby (1 daily; 1hr 15min); Keswick (4 daily; 1hr 30min); Lancaster (4 daily; 1hr 10min); London (3 daily; 5hr 30min); Manchester Airport (2 daily; 2hr 30min); Newcastle Airport (hourly; 2hr 30min); Whitehaven (hourly; 1hr 30min); Windermere/Bowness (3 daily; 2hr 20min). Kendal to: Ambleside (hourly; 40min); Cartmel (7 daily; 1hr); Grasmere (hourly; 1hr); Keswick (hourly; 1hr 30min); Lancaster (hourly; 1hr); Windermere/Bowness (hourly; 30min). Keswick to: Ambleside (hourly; 1 hr); Buttermere
(2 daily; 30min); Carlisle (4 daily; 1 hr 30min); Cockermouth (7 daily; 35min); Grasmere (hourly; 40min); Kendal (hourly; 1 hr 30min); Manchester Airport (1-3 daily; 3hr); Seatoller (9 daily; 30min); Whitehaven (5 daily; 1hr 30min); Windermere (hourly; 1hr).
Windermere to: Ambleside (up to 3 hourly; 15min); Carlisle (3 daily; 2hr 20min); Grasmere (hourly; 30min); Kendal (hourly; 30min); Keswick (hourly; 1hr); Lancaster (hourly; 1hr 45min); Manchester Airport (3 daily; 3hr).

Lake District Accommodation Guide

A good places to look for B&Bs are on High Street and neighbouring Victoria Street, with other concentrations on College Road, Oak and Broad streets. There's a good backpackers' hostel in Windermere itself- the nearestYHA is atTroutbeck — but for camp­ing you'll have to head down to Bowness. If its a touch of class and luxury your after try Langdale Hotel at Great Langdale - Nr Ambleside - Cumbria - LA22 9JD T 015394 37302 - F 015394 37694

Lake District information listings

bike rental, contact Country Lanes,The Railway Station, Windermere (015394/44544, www.countrylanes.co.uk), which provides route maps for local rides. Mountain Goat, near the tourist office on Victoria Street

Birdoswald Fort (March-Nov daily 10am-5.30pm; £3; half-price, for EH members; www.birdoswaldtomanfort.org.uk)

National Rail Enquiries08457/484950, www.rail.co.uk.

youth hostel (0870/770 6124, greenhead@yha.org.uk; dorm beds £11.50)

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Lake District/ Lake District Getting around guide/ Lake District Accommodation Guide/ Lake District information listings