Discover the Lake District

“I wandered lonely as a cloud” Oh, hello! I’m reading from a poem by William Wordsworth, a poet who was inspired by the landscape around me, here in the Lake District.

And it’s no wonder, just look at that view! The Lake District is a mountainous region in the North West of England and home to the highest mountain in England, Scafell Pike, as well as its longest and deepest bodies of water.

These lakes and mountains were formed millions of years ago when the rock was raised up as tectonic plates pushed together. During the last ice age, huge flows of ice formed called glaciers.

These glaciers flowed down the hills and mountains breaking up the ground beneath them and carving out the valleys we see today.Some were filled with water, forming lakes and smaller mountain pools called tarns. Now this landscape is home to a host of plants and animals, these include oak and pine forests, bluebells and daffodils, red squirrels, otters, deer and osprey.

But perhaps the most famous creatures from here are the one created by Beatrix Potter, the writer of Peter Rabbit and Mrs Tiggy-Winkle.

She was captivated by the animals and landscapes she saw while visiting the Lake District on holiday in the 1800s and she helped to preserve the landscape and way of life for generations by buying land and farms, and giving them to the National Trust, who look after them to this day.

The traditional hill farming Beatrix Potter wanted to preserve, still goes on here. But these days, tourism is the main industry, attracting nearly 20 million visitors every year.

If you’re lucky enough to go on holiday here, you’ll see why so many people have fallen in love with this place, from its giant mountains to its smallest inhabitants.