By: Blonde Two
What springs to mind when you think about Cumbria?
- Long Lake District walks?
- Cosy Lake District cottages?
- Fun times at Lake District campsites?
- Lake District weather forecasts?
- Lake District wild swimming?
Me too but then I remember I’m not really very good at the Lake District.
Alfred Wainwright’s Lake District
I know lots of lovely people who eulogise about the Lake District. Alfred Wainright certainly did.
‘Oh, how can I put into words the joys of a walk over country such as this; the scenes that delight the eyes, the blessed peace of mind, the sheer exuberance which fills your soul as you tread the firm turf?’
But then, he was clearly very good, an expert in fact, at the Lake District.
Instagram’s Lake District
It might be blasphemous to suggest social media has taken over from Mr Wainwright but Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are full of photo after photo of atmospheric hills, sunny valleys and tranquil tarns. Social media has also now of course extended to walking routes. Not that I think any of this is bad, just that my experiences have been different.
Very different.
Doing the Lakes
I am absolutely certain it’s not the location’s fault. I’ve concluded I must be doing the Lakes wrong. This phenomena has been going on so long I am now far more likely to head for the Scottish border than leave the M6 before Gretna. My experiences just don’t match the general acclaim. Here are a few examples.
- My Lake District weather is always wayward
- My Lake District car parking is never where I want it to be
- My Lake District crowd avoidance never works
- My Lake District maps are always the wrong ones
- My Lake District tarn swims are tempestuous instead of calming
Living in hope
Being a determined kind of girl I live in hope. I have glimpsed hills rising steeply from the mist, whizzed past tempting waterways and read about walks that don’t start with a wrestling match for car parking. One day I will visit the Lake District, I will walk, swim, chat, eat, drink and relax in front of a wood fire.
If anybody has any advice about how I might manage to do that, I am all ears.
I’m with you all the way! I’ve been a walker for more than half-a-century and used to love the Lakes but I tend to avoid it these days as it’s so busy and yes I know there are areas where you can walk and feel the isolation and the scenery can be spectacular but it can easily be equalled (and bettered) in Scotland and Wales for their mountains, Northumberland and Shropshire for remoteness – so many other places to walk without the crowds and car park challenges. ‘Go where people don’t and you’ll enjoy a far better experience’ has always been my mantra 😜
For over twenty years I have only visited occasionally despite living on its periphery due to the reasons you list. I was also more focussed on completing the Munros. In recent years, along with my pal BC we mopped up all the hills around the perimeter listed in Wainwright’s The Outlying Fells: the last in his series covering the LD in defined areas, and by far his best in my opinion. The book describes all the the hills on the perimeter, but falling within the then national park boundary and in typical Wainwrightian arbitary fashion. Living reasonably close we were able to choose weather windows. Most of the hills were sheer delight, unpopulated and with no parking problems. One gets all the advantages of Lake District ambience and often rewarding views from less known perspectives. I cannot recommend too highly this as a project. There is a revised version of Wainwright’s book by Chris Jesty which should be your guide. Wainwright’s original is I think out of print and difficult to get hold of.
Now really! I had – let me see – 3 weeks of sun and gloriously peaceful walks in the Lakes when I was thirty something. You clearly haven’t learned to wear two waterproof sets one on top of the other – and of course, for peace and quiet you need to be up on the top of a mountain at dawn, cooking breakfast by the tiny tent you carried up there the day before –
and I think it was a Scot who welcomed Wainwright to the Highlands on the condition that he didn’t write a book about his walks there – and I’m sure Welsh Llyns are every bit as turbulent as English tarns – they just speak a different language.
I used to really enjoy my visits to the Lake District, a favourite destination of mine for 40+ years.
It is, after all, a beautiful area with plenty to offer the hill walker and backpacker, but over the last 10 years I may only have visited a dozen or so times – it’s become too busy, too commercial, and too expensive.
My preference now is to go to the eastern side of the M6, Plenty of rugged countryside and solitude.
I’m from Plymouth so I understand the effort made to get us up there, only to suffer a week of indifferent weather. However, lets be honest how different is Dartmoor, at least its on our doorstep and we can choose our weather window to visit, if not we go to the coast (where the weather is different and better). The Lakes is awesome. The northern Lakes behind Skiddaw and Blencathra is very similar to Dartmoor, with rolling grassy hills and some boggy ground, very little people, try that area. Also the Far eastern fells can be quiet. The Kentmere round or Longsleddale Round are very good areas with less people and grassy boggy areas (you see where I’m going here now don’t you). looks are the walks over Wether Hill and Loadpot hill also to get the feel of a high level Roman road. However never miss the chance to go to Helvellyn, St Sunday Crag, Langdale, Bowfell (my favourite fell by a mile), Skiddaw, Coniston old Man and the area of Wasdale to grab the big fells. The area is getting more visitors than last year however go out of season with snow on the ground and learn new skills of an ice axe and crampons, without the crowds around you
I read the weekly Westmorland Gazette that covers South Lakes. Every edition has yet another article about some scheme “to attract more visitors to the Lake District.”