The English Lake District in 3 days!

Many people have plans to visit the UK and sometimes those plans only extend to visiting London and perhaps the Cotswolds area. For many, the Lake District is a step too far, and so in this story, I’ll try to extoll its virtues!

Way back in September 2012, I had to travel to the UK for a family funeral and I allowed enough time to handle all those issues with some time to spare. I’m originally from England and so renting a car and driving on the left doesn’t really bother me and each time we visit I get another chance to practice! I had a visit to the Lake District in mind and so I kept an eye on the weather forecast, decided that it was going to be worthwhile and booked myself two nights in a bed and breakfast place in Windermere, one of the most famous of the lakes and drove up to arrive around lunchtime. The Lake District is about 300 miles north of London, so it is not a day trip for most! But I was starting from the Lancashire coast and so I was much closer.

The Lake District National Park was created in 1951 and covers almost 1000 square miles. Unlike National Parks in the US, the land and buildings still belong to their original owners and the National Park maintains consistency and the overall management of the area by controlling planning. I’ll refer to this map to point out the main places I visited in my three days!

The weather on that first afternoon was not great – a bit cloudy, but with the signs of the sun peeking through those clouds. Having hills so close to the ocean often means wet weather and I guess the Lake District has lakes because of the rain (OK, I know that is a bit of a stretch!). My first lake was Wastwater, 7 on the map, which is somewhat out of the way and pretty remote. It is England’s deepest lake and certainly has a foreboding quality. I decided to turn one of the first of my images by this lake into a moody black and white photograph that I think really captures this mystery:

This was before any sign of the sun breaking through the clouds and I also smoothed out the water to make it less dominant.

I have many more images around here – there is a lovely stone bridge over the stream that you can see in the first image, but this article would go on forever if I included them! You can see all my Lake District images in my Pictorem Portfolio where you can choose many styles of print with free shipping in the USA and Canada. For worldwide delivery, I have an alternative site with printing facilities in many countries. You can see my Lake District images here on that site. Both have a 30-day money back guarantee.

One advantage of being a photographer loose on your own is that you can plan the whole day around capturing photographs! After a quick evening meal in a pub outside Windermere, I was ready for a sunset over the nearby Rydal Water (3 on the map):

I was up with the larks the next morning, well before sunrise so that I could hike to a good overlook over Grasmere (also 3 on the map). The weather was just perfect here – enough clouds to make an interesting color scheme!

I continued to watch as the sun actually rose into the sky, but this early shot was among the most pleasing. Then off on the road again to the edge of Derwentwater to see the historic boats that ferry tourists up and down the lake:

This boat was built in 1925 and I can imagine there is a lot of teak used in the construction!

One of the streams that runs into Derwentwater flows under the famous Ashness bridge. As you can perhaps see, the roads in the Lake District are very narrow – single track in some areas with passing places. I suggested a driving plan for my daughter to see the best of the Lake District in one day using these roads. Her only comment back to me when she got home:

That was a horrible drive! I thought I was about to have 100 heart attacks every time a car came the other way!

As you can also see, the clouds had built up a bit, but there was a magical break in the clouds to allow the sun to light up the bridge. Of course, I sat around waiting for the luck to occur!

I also drove around the lake and captured a broad panorama of Derwentwater. I think my first image of the boat was taken right at the far end of the lake by the trees!

But I was now on my way to Buttermere which is up towards the north of the park (5 on the map). This turned out to be almost completely smooth – the wind had dropped, and I captured some magical reflections of the hills reflected in the lake.

More driving followed (I think there was a lunch in a pub somewhere in here!), as I headed over the Newlands Pass towards Crummock Water (also 5 on the map).

By now it was about 4pm and I wanted to capture some more scenes yet. There is a prehistoric stone circle near Keswick, and I wanted to get there as the sun got lower in the sky. (2 on the map). I managed it, and there were a few people around, but not enough to ruin the photos I had in mind:

I did manage to capture some sunset images that evening, but there were not as good as some of the others, but I still arose in the dark to get to Loughrigg Tarn for sunrise. This was a much calmer, gentler sunrise, but gave some lovely colors on this lake looking towards some mountains known as the Langdale Pikes.

As you can see it is quite misty in the valleys and as I drove on to Coniston Water, (1 on the map), the mist really added a lovely calmness to this lake. I was attracted to the branches floating in the water with the lake going on for ever behind them.

This is the black and white version – there is a color version in my portfolio which has the warmer tones you would expect at this time in the morning. Could my rental car take any more? Yes, we drove on to Tarn Hows with its heavily forested banks:

I explored this area for some time, and then got on the road again, to go up the Langdale Valley on a beautiful afternoon. I just had to stop to take some photographs of these meadows with the Langdale Pikes in the distance again:

And, finally, I was back at Loughrigg Tarn as the day drew to a close. This place was a favorite of the poet, William Wordsworth who likened it to “Diana’s Looking-glass… round, clear and bright as heaven,”:

You might be thinking – what about Windermere, the most famous (and perhaps most popular) of the Lakes? I always find that one a bit of a tourist trap to be honest and nothing like as attractive as these smaller, out of the way, places. If you do visit the Lakes, please bear that in mind!

The next morning, I was off on the road again, but down south to continue with the original purpose of the visit. But these three days in the Lake District were everything I had hoped for and more.

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