An introduction to the Lake District in the County of Cumbria

The Lake District is the largest of the United Kingdom's National Parks, and contains 16 lakes (and many smaller tarns), more than 150 high peaks, with four over 3000 feet (the only mountains in England), (including England's highest mountain, Scafell Pike - 3206 ft).

There are six National Nature Reserves, 100 sites of Special Scientific Interest, over 50 delectable dales, and some four hundred towns, villages and hamlets within its 885 square miles of breathtaking countryside.

It is now part of the county of Cumbria, but originally contained parts of the counties of Cumberland, Westmorland, and North Lancashire.

See a map showing how the Lake District is a part of Cumbria. The Lake District is the green area to the left, and the Yorkshire Dales National Park, part of which is also in Cumbria, is the green area bottom right.

The following regions of Cumbria are either wholly or partly within the Lake District National Park :

	Cockermouth - includes Buttermere, Loweswater, and Crummock Water
	Keswick - includes Borrowdale
	Central Cumbria - includes Ambleside, Windermere, Grasmere, Hawkshead, Coniston
	West Cumbria - includes Whitehaven, Workington, Maryport, Wigton, Sellafield, Millom, Eskdale, Wasdale, St Bees
	East Cumbria - includes Penrith, Eden Valley, North Pennines, Alston, Appleby, Kirkby Stephen
	South Cumbria - includes Kendal, Cartmel, Barrow-in-Furness, Kirkby Lonsdale, Yorkshire Dales, Sedbergh