UK Travel Search: England Lakes District Travel Guide: Lake Windermere, Beatrix Potter, William Wordsworth Lake Conistan


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Lake Windermere, with its 14 islands, is England's longest lake (10 miles) and an English gem - which is why it tends to be crowded. Windermere is the only lake in the Lake District National Park where powerboats are allowed. It's filled in summer with water-skiers, small hovercraft and hundreds of Japanese tourists in paddleboats - with a passenger steamer called the Tern weaving among them. The good news is that the water-skiers and jet-ski enthusiasts, most of the powerboats and other loud and speedy craft will have departed Windermere with the introduction of a 10 mph speed limit on the lake this year (2005).

Bowness-on-Windemere boasts The World of Beatrix Potter, usually filled with Japanese tourists busy venerating Peter Rabbit. For Potter memorabilia, it's better to wait until Sawrey, not far away.

Ambleside, at the centre of the Lake District, is favoured by rock-climbers, backpackers and walkers. It can be crowded in high season but it offers great walks to the east and west of town. One of the best walks heads west out of town past Ambleside Church and then northwest across Loughrigg Fell. It takes about four hours. Another heads over Wansfell to Troutbeck to Stock Ghyll Force (force means waterfall, by the way) and then up to Wansfell Pike and down to Troutbeck village. There's a great pub in Troutbeck called The Mortal Man. The second walk also takes about four - but can be longer if you idle at The Mortal Man.

Rydal Mount, a 16th century farmhouse, was Wordsworth's home from 1817 until his death in 1850. Although not really a museum, it's open to the public. The poet's descendants still live there - their wedding photos adorn the walls. On one item of furniture, a notice warns: "Wordsworth Sofa. Please Do Not Use". At least Wordsworth was allowed to use it.

Cockermouth, one of the oldest towns in Cumbria, was the birthplace in 1770 of - guess who? Wordsworth, of course! His birthplace is open to the public, having survived an attempt in the 1930s to knock it down and replace it with a bus station. Cockermouth also boasts a ruined castle dating from 1134 - and Jennings Brewery, which gives tours and tastings.

Moorland Close, not far from Cockermouth, was the birthplace in 1764 of Fletcher Christian, lead mutineer against tyrannical Captain Bligh on the British warship HMS Bounty. Hollywood has had several cracks at immortalising the mutiny. After casting Bligh adrift, the mutineers sailed merrily around the Pacific having fun and leaving descendants on various islands, with British warships in hot pursuit. Christian finally landed on Pitcairn Island and little else is known about him. A persistent story in Cumbria holds that Christian left Pitcairn on the ship of one Captain Folger in 1808, secretly made his way back to Cumbria and visited relatives there in 1809. Well, shiver me timbers!

Ever heard of Mrs Tiggywinkle, Jemima Puddle-Duck or Pigling Bland? They are among many characters created by Beatrix Potter, born in 1866 in London. She bought a farmhouse at Sawrey (a beautiful whitewashed village on the west side of Windermere) with the proceeds of The Tale of Peter Rabbit. It was her first book and is probably still her best known. Peter Rabbit, who almost came to grief in Mr McGregor's garden, is certainly her best-known character. Potter, an accomplished artist and recorder of natural history, was also an ardent conservationist who donated her estate to the National Trust. Hill Top Farm, her home in Sawrey, is exactly as she left it - a condition of her will. They've done a bit of dusting in the meantime, of course. The village is divided into Far Sawrey and Near Sawrey.

Hawkshead, two miles from Sawrey, is another local beauty spot, a tranquil maze of cobbled, narrow streets, low archways and secluded courtyards. Cars are banned, wisely. The school Wordsworth attended from the age of eight is now a museum - you can even see the desk on which he carved his name. The school was founded in 1585 by a local man, Edwin Sandys, who went on to become the Archbishop of York.

Ulverston, centre of many fine walks, stands beneath a huge stone tower on the summit of nearby Hoad Hill. The tower is an exact replica of Eddystone Lighthouse in the English Channel south of Plymouth. It makes sense in the Channel, but why erect it here? Ah, mysteries of England! Stan Laurel, the thin member of Laurel and Hardy, was born here - but don't blame him for the lighthouse - he had nothing to do with it.

Horseshoe-shaped Newlands Valley is one of this region's most enchanting areas. Setting out from the village of Town End you can walk the Newlands Round, one of England's greatest walks. An easier version is to walk just the eastern side of the horseshoe rather than the whole Round. You traverse a north-to-south ridge that includes Maiden Moor and High Spy. From here, you can see the challenging route that author Samuel Taylor Coleridge used when he walked down to Grasmere - sometimes via Helvellyn - muttering stanzas from The Rime of the Ancient Mariner under his breath.

Water, water, everywhere And all the boards did shrink; Water, water everywhere Nor any drop to drink. Helvellyn is a bracing mountain to climb. Wordsworth climbed it at the age of 70 - boasting of the feat for the rest of his life. A retired policeman aged 90 climbed it recently. Samuel Taylor Coleridge was familiar with walks in the area - his frequent use of opium failed to sap his strength. He also wrote The Rime of the Ancient Mariner following an opium dream, which goes on for pages and pages. Almost everyone has a favourite stanza. Here are two of mine: He holds him with his skinny hand, "There was a ship," quoth he. "Hold off! Unhand me, greybeard loon!" Eftsoons his hand dropped he. and: Like one, that on a lonesome road Doth walk in fear and dread, And having once turned round walks on, And turns no more his head; Because he knows a frightful fiend Doth close behind him tread. The second quote is a bit creepy when recited at night in a dark place.

In non-poetic mood, Coleridge once wrote: "There are three classes into which all the women past seventy that ever I knew were to be divided: 1. That dear old soul; 2. That old woman; 3. That old witch."

"The loveliest spot that man hath ever found" - that's Wordsworth's effusive description of Grasmere, a delightful greystone, slate-roofed village beneath the 2003-feet-high summit of Heron Pike. Wordsworth spent 14 years here - he occasionally used to breakfast with Sir Walter Scott, inventor of the historical novel, at the Swan Hotel. The Swan, a 17th century coaching inn, is still there. In The Waggoner, Wordsworth asks: "Who does not know the famous Swan?" Wordsworth lived at nearby Dove Cottage and his three children were born there.

The Wordsworth Museum is just 25 yards away from Dove Cottage. In 1808, Wordsworth and family moved out of Dove Cottage and it became the home of their friend Thomas de Quincy, author of The Confessions of an English Opium Eater. "Thou hast the keys of Paradise, oh just, subtle, and mighty opium!", de Quincey wrote - but he conceded opium would never replace tea, a drink which "though ridiculed by those who are naturally coarse in their nervous sensibilities... will always be the favourite beverage of the intellectual."

St Oswald's Churchyard in Grasmere is Wordsworth's final resting place. He's buried in the southeast corner, not far from a yew tree he planted. In his poem The Excursion, Wordsworth wrote about St Oswald's Church: Not raised in nice proportions was the pile, But large and massy; for duration built; With pillars crowded, and the roof upheld By naked rafters intricately crossed, Like leafless underboughs in some thick wood, All withered by the depth of shade above.

On the Saturday nearest to August 5 (St Oswald's Day) each year, an ancient and colourful "rush bearing" ceremony is held, with villagers bringing gifts made of rushes and flowers to St Oswald's Church.

The Duddon Valley, a quiet haven of tumbling waterfalls and fern-covered hillsides, is the sort of place that might inspire you to write a sonnet. It inspired Wordsworth to write 34 of them.

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