Travel

Tony Clayton-Lea takes us on a tour of the area's beauty spots.

The Lake District
Many hundreds of thousands of people have fallen under the spell of the Lake District, but none more so than England's most celebrated poet, William Wordsworth. Of course, Wordsworth was lucky in that he had the poetic sensibility to create verse as romantic as the landscape around him. Fans of the poet are well catered for through the auspices of The Wordsworth Trust, which operates (among other things) Grasmere-based Dove Cottage, home to the poet for eight years and in which he produced what many regard to be his definitive poem, I Wandered Lonely (aka Daffodils).

Another interesting Wordsworth-connected place to visit is Rydal Mount and Gardens, close to Ambleside; this building (which now belongs to descendants of the poet), was Wordsworth's home for almost 40 years, and contains many artifacts relating to his time spent there. A reciprocal discount ticket operates with Dove Cottage and Rydal Mount and Gardens; there is also a path that connects one to the other, and which takes about half an hour of a gentle ramble from start to finish.

When you've had your fill of poetry, or if you want to uproot yourself from Ambleside to another Lake District beauty spot, you could head over to Cartmel (officially located in the Southern Lake District, and often described The Lake District travel Tony Clayton-Lea takes us on a tour of the area's beauty spots. Photographs by Rod Edwards as Lakeland's cathedral city in miniature). Relatively unspoilt (and it has to be said, slightly more peaceful than Ambleside, which appears to be saturated with fell walkers), Cartmel is quite possibly the best area in which to locate yourself for further exploration.

The Market Square is very much the heart of the village. Around the square is a delightful assortment of genuine olde worlde buildings serving - as they have for centuries - as inns, shops and private houses. From the square, old cobbled streets wind their way out of the village, each one well worth the time it takes to explore. You'll find flower-filled corners, streamside walks, picturesque streets and tiny shops offering all kinds of Lakeland products, as well as attractive galleries where local artists exhibit and sell their work.

From Cartmel to the Lakes themselves: there are sixteen great lakes, from the secluded and peaceful waters of Buttermere, Wastwater and Rydal to Windermere, Derwentwater, Ullswater and Coniston. In the summer months, they are all abuzz with pleasure boats and bustling with tourists. In late autumn and early spring, there are fewer tourists around and the pace is far more leisurely. Driving to Lakeside, from where Windermere Lake Cruises operate, is almost worth a trip in itself: gorgeous autumnal countryside hues compete with tiny humpbacked bridges, underneath which paddle swans and ducks. And then it's onto the actual lake, a straight, comfortable journey that took us to Bowness, home to a wide array of shops, teahouses, chippers, restaurants and the World of Beatrix Potter.

We leave the Lake District thinking how close it is to Ireland, and yet wonder at the noticeable lack of Irish accents to be found in the area. The fact of the matter is that it's accessible within a couple of hours maximum from either Liverpool/Manchester airports. There are no apparent reasons why it shouldn't be as thickly populated by Irish visitors as any other beautiful part of the UK-it's such a gorgeous area, so unspoilt and untarnished that you wish it could be boxed up, tied with a shiny ribbon and delivered straight to your doorstep.EM