Wild Things Publishing Wild Swimming Walks - Lake District takes you on 28 adventures in the captivating landscape of the Lake District. Find secret waterfalls, pristine mountain tarns and sparkling rivers. The author, Pete Kelly was brought up in northern England and learnt to swim in the tidal pools of Northumbria. He now lives in Ambleside with his wife Andrea and son William. Together they founded Swim the Lakes in 2005, pioneering guided adventure swimming. Pete has appeared on BBC Countryfile and Secret Britain and writes for Outdoor Swimmer Magazine.
Features:
Discover beautiful pools below the highest waterfall in Cumbria
Swim around the islands of Ullswater and into the Devil’s Chimney
Bathe in the deepest tarn in the Lakes beneath the towering crags of Mardale
Explore the craggy highs and the watery lows of Scafell Pike from the wonderful Eskdale Valley
Seek the legendary talking fish of Bowscale Tarn
Including detailed directions, maps and downloadable route information to print out or take with you on your phone or tablet.
Routes included:
River Caldew and Bowscale Tarn
Silver Bay and the Ullswater Islands
Howtown, Sandwick and Kailpot Crag
Helvellyn, Red Tarn, Glenridding Beck and Ullswater
The Tarns of Patterdale and Hartsop
Blea Water and Small Water
The Falls of Swindale
Cat Bells and the Derwentwater Shoreline
Harrop and Blea Tarn
Blackmoor Pot, Galleny Force and The Fairy Glen
Castle Crag, the River Derwent and Millican Dalton’s Cave
Crummock Water and Scale Force
Bleaberry Tarn, High Stile and Buttermere
Stickle Tarn and the Langdale Pikes
Yew Tree Tarn, the Holme Fell Tarns and Hodge Close Quarry
Sour Milk Gill, Easedale and Codale Tarns
The Vale of the Lake District Poets
Wray Castle, Windermere, and the Latterbarrow Ramble
Staveley, the River Kent and the Tarns of Potter Fell
Windermere, Moss Eccles and Wise Een Tarn
Finsthwaite, High Dam and the River Leven
Scoat Tarn and Low Tarn
The Emerald Pool, Sprinkling Tarn and Styhead Tarn
Upper Esk and Scafell Pike
Blea Tarn at Beckfoot
The Duddon Valley and Seathwaite Tarn
Coniston Launch Adventure
Blind Tarn, Goats Water and the Tranearth Pool
There is nowhere on this good green Earth quite like the English Lake District. Forged by the Ice Age, conquered by the Romans and named by the Vikings it has a unique heritage and sense of place, evident in the fierce sense of belonging to all who call this place home. Of course, the Lakes has a long association with mountaineering and fell walking, but also with outdoor swimming. Since the time of William Wordsworth (1770 – 1850) and Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772 – 1834), visitors to the region have enjoyed taking to the waters as part of a vigorous and stimulating outdoor life.
As a swimming destination in itself, the Lake District is in a class of its own. The long, narrow ribbon lakes carved out by the glaciers, and the tarns, gills, becks and rivers that feed them, were all made for swimming, and in such surroundings! There are larger and more imposing mountains in Britain, but none have the beauty and grace of the Lake District Fells. It is plain to see how the dramatic scenery of the Lakes inspired some of our most lauded artists and poets to create their finest work. To gaze upon any painting by William Heaton Cooper (1903 – 1995), or to become immersed in William Wordsworth’s epic poem The Prelude is to be transported to the very edge of the falls at Blackmoss Pot (known in Heaton Cooper’s time as Blackmoor Pot), or to the craggy shoreline and eminently swimmable waters of Ullswater. These works reflect a deep understanding of the natural world, which is perhaps why we love them so much, created as they are, in Wordsworth’s words, by “nurslings of the mountains” and “wanderers among the woods and fields”: in other words, by people to whom we can relate.
History of the Land:
Much of the character and appearance of the Lake District countryside is far from natural; man has made his mark here since the Stone Age. Since this time the rocks and minerals hidden within the mountains have been sought after and exploited, facilitated in time by the accessible ports of the west coast. There are in excess of 300 different minerals to be found in the Lake District and lead, copper, zinc, tungsten, graphite, slate and coal are among the many that have been mined and quarried. Much of the mineral exploitation continued up until the Industrial Revolution and beyond.