Learning

View of mountains above Wasdale copyright Tony West
View of mountains above Wasdale

Facts and figures

Lake District National Park

The Lake District National Park is England's largest and covers 2292 square kilometres / 885 square miles

Width (west to east): 53 km / 33 miles

Width (north to south): 64 km / 40 miles

Highest mountains

  1. Scafell Pike at 978 metres (3210 feet)
  2. Scafell at 964 metres (3162 feet)
  3. Helvellyn at 950 metres (3114 feet)
  4. Skiddaw at 931 metres(3053 feet)
  5. Great End at 910 metres (2986 feet)
  6. Bowfell at 902 metres (2940 feet)

Lakes and coastline

  • Deepest lake is Wastwater at 74 metres (243 feet)
  • Longest lake is Windermere which is 10.5 miles long
  • There is only one official lake - Bassenthwaite Lake. All the others are 'meres' or 'waters'
  • The National Park includes 26 miles of coastline and estuaries
  • In the heavy rains of November 2009, Windermere lake rose 157cm. Over the week, that translates into an extra 35,700,000,000 litres were added, 22,100,000,000 over those 36 hours!

14 main lakes in order of size

Area is to the nearest hectare. A hectare is equivalent to 10,000 square metres

  1. Windermere - 1459
  2. Ullswater - 884
  3. Derwentwater - 531
  4. Bassenthwaite Lake - 518
  5. Coniston Water - 475
  6. Haweswater - 387
  7. Thirlmere - 327
  8. Ennerdale Water - 301
  9. Wastwater - 283
  10. Crummock Water - 258
  11. Buttermere - 93
  12. Grasmere - 61
  13. Loweswater - 61
  14. Rydal Water - 31

Total: 5669 hectares

Key dates

1810 William Wordsworth publishes "Guide to the Lakes"

1847 Kendal and Windermere railway reaches Windermere

1951 Lake District National Park established - read more in History of the National Park

Local population and housing

  • 42,239 people live within the boundaries of the National Park. (Source: 1991 census)
  • Total dwellings: 22, 930
  • Owner occupied: 67.7 per cent
  • Rented: 32.3 per cent
  • Holiday or second homes: 15 per cent

(Source: Corporate Information Unit at Cumbria County Council)

Tourism

  • 15.8 million visitors a year (Source: STEAM 2009: Cumbria Tourism)
  • 23.1 million tourist days (Source: STEAM 2009: Cumbria Tourism)
  • Visitors spent £925.7 million (Source: STEAM 2009: Cumbria Tourism)
  • Visitors to the Lake District coming by private motor vehicle: 89 per cent

Find out more in Help with projects - Tourism

Weather

Mean temperature in Ambleside:

  • July - 14.9 degrees centigrade
  • January - 3.1 degrees centigrade

Annual rainfall:

  • in Ambleside: 2061mm
  • in Seathwaite, the wettest inhabited place in England: 3552mm

Useful links:

Cultural Heritage

14,650 archaeological sites and monuments recorded in the Historic Environment Record, including 275 scheduled ancient monuments

1760 listed buildings and structures

23 Conservation Areas covering historic towns and villages

Need more?

If you want more information on geology, tourism or other areas, you may find our Factsheets helpful.

The State of the Park Report includes statistics on farming, employement and tourism.

Or for local traditions and famous people check out Uniquely Lake District.