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The English Lake District

Cumbrian December (UK)

ColinT
2005-04-24 10:24:58

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to travel a long way from the Cumbrian lakes before encountering such "development" (fortunately). The English Lake District is a National Park and new building is very strictly controlled.

As I continued forever downward, my thoughts drifted to the nearby 4000-year-old Stone Circle on the airy hilltop of Castlerigg, which also overlooks Keswick, and St. Kentigern's Church (AD533). The Market Charter (13th century), early lead mining, quarrying and the growth of pencil manufacture have all played their part in the long and often dramatic history of Keswick, and famous literary names, including Southey, Coleridge, Wordsworth and Ruskin, were influential in attracting the early tourists to Keswick to experience the spectacular scenery all around. When in this part of the world it's easy to see why so many writers were (and still are) inspired by the English Lake District.

Keswick lies on the northern edge of the tranquil Derwentwater. Beyond the lake and to the south lies Borrowdale Valley, in my mind the most beautiful part of the Lake District. A scattering of villages with their pretty flower beds, tea shops, whitewashed pubs and charming guesthouses line the valley, which is hemmed in by peaks on both sides and eventually gives way to England's highest mountains. As mountains go, they are small, but contrary to popular perception, size really doesn't matter: place their ruggedness next to tranquil lakes, picture-postcard villages and working farms and they become part of the most spectacular landscape that England has to offer. The local tourist board notes that "the steep-sided valley of Borrowdale running some ten miles from its sources high in the Scafell mountains (977m) down to the shores of Derwentwater at Keswick must be one of the most beautiful and exciting landscapes in the British Isles." As a regular visitor to the area, I can personally vouch for what they say, and on this small, crowded island of 60 million people, I am constantly amazed that such areas of outstanding natural beauty carpet vast tracts of land.

Rosthwaite, Stonethwaite, Seathwaite (thwaite = clearing) and the hamlet of Seatoller are the head of the valley settlements, busy with climbers, walkers and visitors for much of the year as they venture into the high mountains that encircle this dramatic scene. You could spend weeks exploring Borrowdale in all its corners, moods and seasons and I have.

But on this mad December weekend as I tramped down the mountainside, I yearned for the comfort of a glowing fireside in a Keswick pub, with its homely atmosphere and locally brewed ale. And I knew someone would be waiting for me to soothe my chilled bones and aching limbs. I called her name...hoping it would whisper on the wind across what seemed like a thousand miles and somehow she would hear. And I imagined she called mine. But there was nothingness, bleakness and only the howl of the gale as it rebounded, reminding me of my solitude - and, of course, the sound of my bursting blisters emptying onto the mountain.

Lake Blister - somehow it doesn't have the same ring as Lake Windermere, Buttermere or any of the other quaintly named waterways of Cumbria. But, thankfully, it's only the product of a tired Englishman's imagination gone wild.