The English Lake District

The Lake District National Park - or the Lake District, as it's more commonly known - is the most beautiful corner of England. It's a beauty that is sublime and exquisite. Here is nature at its best.

The National Park covers 866 square miles and comprises much of the county of Cumbria. There are sixteen major lakes in the area, and an almost countless number of smaller tarns. But it's not just the lakes that make Cumbria such a scenic gem. The Lake District is the only corner of England that can be described as mountainous.

These are not mountains like the Alps, the Himalayas, the Andes or the Rockies. There are no wildernes areas, no shimmering glaciers, no jagged peaks only accessible to mountaineers. These are mountains on a human scale. Mountains that can be conquered by anyone who is reasonably fit and posessed of sufficient determination. Mountains set within a landscape of lakes, forests, pastures, farms and picture-book villages. And yet mountains that yield nothing to the greatest peaks in the world in their capacity to inspire awe.

The Lakeland mountains are known locally as fells, a corruption of "fjell", an old Nordic word for mountain. The fells rise to a maximum height of 3210 ft. There are more that two hundred fells that rise to a height of a thousand feet or more. Just about all of them are worth climbing, and most are hills of great character and individuality. A vast network of paths leads the hiker around, among and over the fells. Their relatively modest scale and the compactness of the area allows ridgewalks that can encompass several significant summits in a single day. From the town of Ambleside, for instance, one can walk northwards along Sweden Bridge Lane and take in Low Pike, High Pike, Dove Crag, Hart Crag, Fairfield, Great Rigg, Heron Pike and Nab Scar before arriving back at Ambleside in the late afternoon. The walk is eleven miles in length, reaches a maximum altitude of 2863 ft and involves around 3400ft of ascent. An infinite number of similar walks is available.

I've been exploring the Lakeland Fells since 1982, initially by joining guided walks, later mostly on my own. I've always taken my camera with me. The weather can be fickle at times but the fells are beautiful in most weathers, and hopefully the pictures of the area will speak for themselves. I hope you enjoy them.

Important Notice : Copyright

All images on this site are the copyright of the author. You may download and archive them; you may use them as wallpaper or backdrops; you may alter and manipulate them for your own amusement.

You may not use them for commercial gain. You may not pass them off as your own. If you wish to place any of them on your own website, or otherwise redistrubute them or make them available for public access, you are required to contact the author first for permission. Original credit and a copyright notice will be a manditory condition before such a request is granted. If you derive any new image wholly or partially from these imges, such as a manipulation or composite, and you wish to publish any resulting image or use it for commercial gain, you are similarly required to contact the author for permission, and to give original credit, and to append a copyright notice to any such image.

Gallery Index

The Lake District divides down naturally into distinct areas and mountain groups. Each area has its own index page, and each area index lists individual walks, each with its own photo gallery. Click the thumbnails in each walk index for a full-size (800 x 600) image.

There aren't many pictures available at present but I will be adding images over a period of time. Please contact the author with comments. Feedback is very welcome.

	Windermere
	Coniston
	Kentmere
	The Helvellyn group
	The Fairfield group
	Grasmere and Rydal
	Ullswater
	Ennerdale
	Buttermere, Crummock and High Stile
	The Central Fells
	The Scafell / Bowfell group
	The Great Gable group
	The Langdale Pikes
	Borrowdale and Derwentwater
	The Dale Head group
	The Grasmoor group
	The Skiddaw Group
	The Blencathra Group
	Whinlatter Forest
	The Caldbeck Fells

John Butler, Biggleswade, Bedford, England.

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Walks completed in 2008:
...will appear here

Latest updates

June 25 2006: Easedale Round gallery added.
June 5 2006: Grasmere section launched with Silver How gallery
May 17 2006: Wansfell and Baystones gallery added
May 9 2006: Coniston section launched with Walna Scar page
April 26 2006: Windermere section launched with Claife Heights gallery