Hit the Lakes and bliss out

By KEVIN JONES

The Lake District means different things to different people.

It can be the ultimate travel direction for true, card-carrying romantics who wish only to baste themselves in all things Wordsworth and bliss out in truly serene surroundings.

It can also be a gruelling test of muscle, sinew and cartilage; a joint-searing affront to seemingly every bend in your body. It can drive you to physical despair while it is lifting your soul to new heights with its sublime beauty.

For those with humbler, perhaps baser, needs, it is one of the best places around to get rotten drunk in, with some of the finest pubs England has to offer and some great beer guaranteed to tempt even those poor unfortunates who suffer from taste buds that need tempting.

Whichever angle you approach the Lakes from, you are generally guaranteed a truly memorable trip.

As a fully-rounded, sensitive (ish) new age male, I've done all three. I've been lovey-dovey to the max in the Lakes, I've also walked some of its high peaks and chased deer around the tarns (mountain-top lakes, if you didn't know), and I've also just done it easy, pitching a tent near a fabulous little town such as Bowness-on-Windermere, and spending a weekend singing and drinking and have a terribly male whale of a time.

The Lakes are too diverse to begin to do them justice in one article on a computer screen.

Wordsworth, after all, found the inspiration for his life's great work from the often stark, often haunting but always captivating allure of this incredibly compact region of mountains, lakes, tarns, glens and forests.

However, we can give you hints - and links - to give you pointers to find exactly what you want out of your Lake District trip.

Don't be fooled completely by the adjective "compact". All things are relative. It would take you a long and ultimately repetitive time to "do" the Lakes in one go.

But viewed internationally, the Lake District has an incredible number of panoramic and/or atmospheric attractions per square mile.

Mountain climbers don't generally spend time in the Lakes, unless they're practising for the foothills of real mountain ranges. You get your abseilers, your occasional cliff-hangers.

The standard Lakes adventurer is the serious hiker. Not your weekend stroller; your fully booted-up fell-walker; back-pack perched, shell-like, as he or she arches the body into the sharp incline of the hill to the next ridge.

These people do the hard yards and are rewarded with the ultimate Lakeland experience.

To be rewarded after several, agonising uphill hours with a ridge that affords you a vista of an ancient tarn providing a watering hole for a herd of majestic wild deer is to be blessed.

There are several major lake areas in the Lake District and who knows how many hillside and mountain walks. Here are some of the main tourist destinations:

Ullswater

Ullswater (pictured above) is one of the north-western lakes and, at seven miles long, is the second largest of the Lakes.

Patterdale is the southern gateway to Ullswater. Surrounded by mountains, Patterdale is named after St Patrick, who is said to have walked here after a shipwreck in AD540, and is believed to have preached and baptised people there.

St Patrick's church was built in 1853, and has some stunning embroideries by local embroideress Ann Macbeth.

Patterdale is often used as the base for climbing Helvellyn. Pictured right, it's 3118 feet high, and the third-highest of the Lakes' peaks. It is a popular climb, suitable for any experienced and properly kitted hiker.

Borrowdale and Derwent Water

The Lake is know as Derwent Water but the area's name also incorporates the village of Borrowdale.

The main town in the area is Keswick. Once a market and mining centre, Keswick is now home to climbers, walkers and holiday makers.

The poets Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey lived at Greta Hall (now part of Keswick School) in the early 19th century. Borrowdale is a shortened term for Grange in Borrowdale, which is named after the grange or granary that the monks of Furness Abbey originally had there. The village is reached over an old double bridge.

One of the most attractive villages in the area. Borrowdale itself is a very beautiful valley, with towering crags and wooded fells. A mile north of Grange are the Lodore Falls, which are spectacular after heavy rain,

A mile to the south is the Bowder Stone, an impressive remnant of the Ice Age.

Buttermere

Buttermere is a lake region for the true believers to enjoy. It is not easily reached by road, being one of the north-east lake areas, but is much-cherished by its visitors, as there are four lakes within coo-ee of each other: Buttermere, Ennerdale, Crunnock Water and Loweswater.

There is no big town to be found out here and if you're a motorist expecting to find everything laid out for your viewing pleasure, you'll miss out because Ennerdale is entirely inaccessible by road. As such it is viewed as a Lakeland treasure and much effort has been put in preserve its beauty after some over-zealous and misplaced intervention by humankind in the mid 20th Century.

Grasmere

Grasmere, and its close neighbours, Rydal Water and Elterwater, makes up for its relative smallness with its drop-dead beauty.

Grasmere was, after all, where William Wordsworth himself bunked down. Grasmere's most famous resident described it as "the lovliest spot that man has ever found".

Wordsworth lived in Dove Cottage in Grasmere (pictured) from 1799 to 1808. He and his family later lived in the Rectory and in Allan Bank, before moving to Rydal. Wordsworth, his wife, his sister and some menbers of his family are buried in the churchyard at Grasmere. Not surprisingly, there is a Wordsworth and Grasmere Museum.

Windermere

Windermere gets a bad press from the afore-mentioned true believers; those Lakeland visitors who crave only the beauty, tranquillity - and isolation - of the far-flung regions.

Lake Windermere is not just the largest of the Lakes, it is also the first reached from the south and, as such, is the most populated area of the Lake District proper.

There are two substantial towns around the lake: Bowness-On-Windermere and Ambleside. As mentioned at the start of this article, the Lakes offer more than just gruelling fell-walks and spectacular vistas. Windermere might not have the grandeur of some of the Lakeland's more pristine interior, but it has a beauty of its own and its villages and towns are charming by day, lively by night, especially in summer.

Sleepy Bowness comes alive in the summer and if you want a great night out, check out "Th'ole in th'Wall, a wonderfully preserved centuries-old pub that was reputedly Charles Dickens' favourite Lakeside retreat.

There are some memorable ferry rides to be taken around the lake itself and Ambleside is well worth a look.

Wastdale

Wastdale is another of the true believers' most-cherished spots. Your serious Lake-ite makes for Wast Water just because it so tough to reach in the first place. Having said that, the scenery makes all the hard graft worthwhile.

In the summer, you should have few problems if you have a decent car. Winter might be a different story. Hardknott Pass, the major access point from the east, has 1 in 3 gradients, sharp bends and a narrow road, making it the most difficult pass in the Lakes to drive over. Check out the view, though.

Whatever your starting point, the Lake District is worth the trip. You can get spiritual, romantic, physical (with hiking boots on, that is) or just plain drunk and silly. You'll never forget it.