The Lake District is the largest of England’s 10 stunning national parks, and makes up a good portion of the mostly rural county of Cumbria. The village of Arnside & Silverdale (a few miles south) is one of England’s Areas of Outstanding Beauty (so nobody is allowed to build luxury flats on it).
Confusing, Lake Windermere (England’s largest body of water) is not a lake, but it looks like one, so that’s good enough. Unfortunately this beautiful area does suffer from overtourism in summer, which has led councils to rap tourists on the knuckles for dropping litter and over-feeding swans (they can easily find food naturally underwater – some are now so tame they go up to dogs and waddle up the road to the supermarket to look for ‘easy pickings’).
In recent months, there has been uproar as the local water company has given millions in profits to shareholders, while not dealing with raw sewage spurting into Lake Windermere, which children, dogs and wild swimmers enjoy.
Nearby is Carnforth Station, the setting for the beautiful film Brief Encounter (the bridge the couple cross is in the village of Langdale). The seaside village of St Bees marks the beginning of Wainwright’s coast-to-coast walk (which ends when you paddle your toes in the East Yorkshire’s Robin Hood’s Bay).
With Rutland, the Lake District is a place to spot ospreys (fish-eating birds of prey). Read Wild Fell on how volunteers rewilded the area, after England’s last golden eagle died alone on the Eastern Fells, a sad day for conservationists.
Always follow the Countryside Code to keep dogs and livestock safe. In a county with 6 times more sheep than people, learn how to right an overturned sheep or it will die (hold it upright until rain has drained off, to prevent reoccurence).
exploring the wild nature of the Lake District
Lakeland Wild is a book that looks at the wild nature of one of England’s busiest national parks. If you go beyond the touristy boundaries, you’ll find fells, lakes, tarns and becks where nature and wildlife still thrives. With a naturalist’s eye and poet’s instinct, the author is drawn to turned-aside places from low-lying shores to a high mountain oakwood that’s not even on the map.
Have you ever seen a great grey owl? Owls have a trait they share with wolves: the capacity to stop dead and vanish where they stand. When they perch next to a tree trunk, they simply become the tree trunk. So why (given that the range of of the great grey owl is North America, Scandinavia and northern Russia (and the nearest one to Borrowdale just south of Derwentwater) is likely to be in Norway, why am I asking if you have ever seen one?
Through backwaters and backwoods, Jim traces this captivating land’s place in the evolution of global conservation, and pleads the case for a protection of wildness.
Wonderful. The language throughout is delicious. Intelligent and cultured, but not flowery or overblown. He paints vivid pictures in my mind ..one feels that one is standing on the hillside with him. Mark Avery
Another great book by Crumley. Being taken out of the comfort zone of his usual patch in Scotland has proved his mettle as a quality writer about the natural world. Paul Cheney
Jim Crumley is an ardent advocate for our landscapes and animals. A nature writer, journalist and poet with decades of field observation and 30 books to his name, he has won and been shortlisted for a number of prestigious awards.