England, United Kingdom
The Lake District occupies the mountainous heart of the county of Cumbria, in the north-west of England, a compact region, barely fifty kilometres across, of sixteen principal lakes radiating like the spokes of a wheel from a central knot of high fells, and it is the most visited national park in Britain and the country's best loved walking ground. It is reached by the west coast main line from London to Oxenholme, under three hours, with a branch to Windermere, and by the M6 motorway, an hour and a half from Manchester; within the park, buses, some of them open-topped, link the main valleys, and steamers and launches ply Windermere, Ullswater, Derwentwater and Coniston, so that a car, which is a burden on the narrow lanes and in the crowded car parks of summer, is not essential. There are no gates or fees. The visitor chooses a base.
Read the full guide →
England, United Kingdom
Northumberland National Park occupies the empty uplands of England's northernmost county, stretching for some sixty kilometres from Hadrian's Wall, in the south, to the Cheviot hills on the Scottish border, in the north, and it is the least populated and least visited of the English national parks, a country of wide skies, moorland, sheep and silence. It has no towns within it, and the places from which it is explored lie round its edges: Hexham and Haltwhistle for the Wall, both on the railway between Newcastle and Carlisle, Bellingham and Otterburn for the central valleys, Rothbury for Coquetdale and the Simonside hills, and Wooler for the Cheviots. Newcastle, with its airport, is an hour's drive from most of them. A car is more or less necessary, except along the Wall, where a special bus, numbered AD122 after the year in which the Wall was begun, runs from spring to autumn between Hexham and Haltwhistle, stopping at all the Roman sites.
Read the full guide →