Lake District

The Lake District, also known as The Lakes or Lakeland, is a rural area in north west England.  It is a popular vacation area, famous for its lakes and its mountains and its associations with the early 19th century poetry and writings of William Wordsworth and the Lake Poets.

It is on a tentative list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.UNESCO, "England's Lake District"; retrieved 2012-4-19.

History
Lake District National Park (created in 1951) is one of the fifteen National parks in the United Kingdom.

Geography
The Lake District is about 34 miles (55 km) across (north-to-south or west-to-east).  It is entirely within Cumbria, and is one of England's few mountainous regions. All the land in England higher than three thousand feet above sea level is in the Park. 

25 highest fells
The 25 highest fells (of those given an individual chapter in the Pictorial Guides by Alfred Wainwright) are:

 Scafell Pike, 978 m / 3210 ft
 Scafell, 965 m / 3162 ft
 Helvellyn, 951 m / 3118 ft
 Skiddaw, 931 m / 3054 ft
 Great End, 910 m / 2986 ft
 Bowfell, 902 m / 2960 ft
 Great Gable, 899 m / 2949 ft
 Pillar, 892 m / 2926 ft
 Nethermost Pike, 891 m / 2923 ft
 Catstycam, 889 m / 2917 ft
 Esk Pike, 885 m / 2903 ft
 Raise (Lake District), 883 m / 2896 ft
 Fairfield, 873 m / 2863 ft
 Blencathra, 868 m / 2847 ft
 Skiddaw Little Man, 865 m / 2837 ft
 White Side, 863 m / 2831 ft
 Crinkle Crags, 859 m / 2818 ft
 Dollywaggon Pike, 858 m / 2815 ft
 Great Dodd, 857 m / 2807 ft
 Grasmoor, 852 m / 2795 ft
 Stybarrow Dodd, 843 m / 2772 ft
 St Sunday Crag, 841 m / 2759 ft
 Scoat Fell, 841 m / 2759 ft
 Crag Hill, 839 m / 2753 ft
 High Street, 828 m / 2717 ft

Lakes

Only one lake in the National Park has the word 'Lake' in its name, namely Bassenthwaite Lake. All the others such as Windermere, Coniston Water, Ullswater and Buttermere use other forms, such as 'mere' and 'water'. The major lakes and reservoirs in the park are given below.

The word 'tarn' is a local word used to describe any small lake that may otherwise be called a pond.

Nomenclature
A number of words/phrases are local to the Lake District and are part of the Cumbrian dialect. These include:

fell - brought to England by Viking invaders and close to modern Norwegian 'Fjell' meaning mountain
tarn - a word that has been taken to mean a small lake in a corrie, it is a local phrase for any small pool of water
Yan Tan Tethera - the name for a system of sheep counting which was traditionally used in the Lake District. Though now rare, it is still used by some and taught in local schools.

 Related pages 
 List of World Heritage Sites of the United Kingdom
 Yorkshire Dales

References

Other websites

Lake District official website 
Lake District Walks
Illustrated Guide to the Lake District

More reading
Hollingsworth, S. 'The Geology of the Lake District: a review', Proc. Geologists Assoc., 65 (Part 4) 1954
Moseley, F. Geology of the Lake District, Yorkshire Geologic

Category:Geography of Cumbria
Category:World Heritage Sites in the United Kingdom