Lake District

The Lake District National Park is one of fourteen National parks in the United Kingdom. It lies
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 lies within the Park. The Lakes, as
the region is also called, were made famous during the early 19th century by the poetry and
writings of William Wordsworth and the Lake Poets.
The Lake District is about 34 miles (55 km) across (north-to-south or west-to-east). Its
features are a result of periods of glaciation, the most recent of which ended some 15000
years ago. The ice carved wide U-shaped valleys, many of which are now filled with the lakes
that give the park its name. The upper regions contain a number of glacial cirques, which are
typically filled with tarns. The higher fells are rocky, with lower fells being open moorland,
notable for its wide bracken and heather coverage. Below the tree line native oak woodlands
sit alongside nineteenth century pine plantations. Much of the land is often boggy, due to the
high rainfall.