THE WESTERN LAKE DISTRICT

If you are looking for a Lake District hotel, and you want to explore the central and western Lake District, consider one of the many guesthouses or spa hotels in Ambleside, Windermere, Hawkshead or Coniston and make the most of your stay in this beautiful area of the lakes.

Great Langdale doesn't have a lake, but it has all the other attributes of a picturesque Lakeland valley - a beck, green fields hatched by dry stone walls, and mountains blocking out more than half the sky. The passes of Wry nose and Hardknott are not for the timid, but they allow a motorist to go mountaineering without special effort.

The western Lake District is out of the way but worth the effort. One of the truly great sights is the Screes beyond Wastwater, preferably lit by a setting sun, draped like giant fans from a 1 ,700ft (520m) long cliff the southeastern buttress of sprawling Scafell. Elsewhere, the prominent features are sternness and sterility. As Thomas Wilkinson, a visitor in 1824, wrote: 'The mountains of Wast Water are naked to their base their sides and their summits are uniform; their summits shoot up into lofty points and end in the form of pyramids.'

GALAVA FROM AMBLESIDE

At Borrans, near the head of Windermere, stood a Roman fort named Galava. It was commented on by Cam den, who bravely entered these parts in 1586. He saw 'the carcase as it were of an ancient city with great ruins of walls, and of buildings without the walls still remaining scattered about.' Now there is just an expanse of grass. To visit the area is an appropriate prelude to the first part of this route, which takes in the high passes of Wry nose and Hardknott, where a Roman road connected them with Ravenglass, a natura] harbor on the Cumbrian coast.

LANGDALE VALLEY LAKE DISTRICT

Follow the A593 through Skelwith Bridge and take the B5343 for Great Langdale, which bursts into view near Elterwater. Across the common and beyond the woodland rise the Langdale Pikes, one of the most distinctive landforms in the district. Elterwater has a large car park near the river bridge and a smaller car park (property of the National Trust) on the west side of the common, which is a grazing area for Herdwick sheep. The evidence of slate quarrying is everywhere, and a terrace of slate dwellings overlooking the common is unusual and attractive. There are few visible remains of the old gunpowder factory that supplied the quarries. In its place is a large and attractive timeshare complex.

LAKE DISTRICT HOTELS

Lake District hotels are well situated throughout the region, and if you are planning to go walking in the Lake District, hiking, horse riding or visiting local attractions, the best place to base yourself is Windermere, Coniston or Hawkshead to make the most of this stunning area. Romantic hotels and guesthouses can also be found in Bowness, and boutique hotels in the Lake District are among the best in England.

GREAT LANGDALE LAKE DISTRICT

Great Langdale proper is entered at Chapel Stile, in which the most prominent building is Holy Trinity Church. The church stands on a hill as though on a ledge, which means that churchgoing requires physical as well as spiritual stamina. In the churchyard is the grave of G.M. Trevelyan, author of English Social History, a classic book published in 1944.

Beyond the village, Thrang Crag and the residues of slate quarrying are prominent. So is a terrace of houses and holiday flats. A road to the quarry begins near a craft shop, but it is unwise to explore redundant quarries without taking local advice and wearing a stout helmet.

The Langdale Pikes dominate the dale with the impact of a Sphinx. Three fells are seen, these being Harrison Stickle (the highest, at 2,414ftI736m), Pike 0' Stickle and Pavey Ark, and there are five summits in the group. The Pikes can be ascended, with some effort, from the New Dungeon Gill Hotel. Car parking seems ample, but in summer it is in the keenest demand. Near the foot of Pavey Ark's 600ft (200m) cliff is Stickle Tarn which, dammed in 1824, provided a constant head of water, via the river, for the gunpowder works at Elterwater.

THE LAKE DISTRICT STEAM RAILWAY

The road descends to the head of the Duddon Valley, where Hardknott Pass (more fearsome than Wry nose) begins its course to Eskdale with a steep gradient and a quick succession of hairpin bends, delivering the motorist to an elevation of 1,291ft (394m). Care is needed during the descent. Beside the road, on a plateau looking into Eskdale, are the considerable remains of Mediobogdum, a Roman fort. There is space beside the road on which to park the car. Wordsworth, in one of his sonnets about the River Duddon, pictured an eagle flying over the ruins of a fort 'whose guardians bent the knee to Jove and Mars'.

Eskdale, though lakeless, extends with a quiet charm down to Boot, where the holiday spirits of many are buoyed up by the the Ravenglass & Eskdale Railway (affectionately known as 'Ratty').
At Eskdale Green, a narrow, unclassified road leads to Santon Bridge and on to Nether Wasdale, where the grandeur of Wasdale is unfolded. Alternatively, travel down to Ravenglass, where the Romans took advantage of a fine natural harbor. Here, Ratty, England's oldest narrow gauge steam railway offers the chance to visit, in novel fashion, Muncaster Water Mill. The railway operates daily from March to October, with special days around Christmas and winter weekends.

On the journey through Wasdale, firstly there is a view of Wastwater, which has a cold, blue appearance. Wastwater is almost sterile and the least changed of the great lakes since they were formed by the scouring of glacial ice. The lake is very deep and in places extends below sea level. The famous Screes, to which reference has been made, are part of a 3mile cliff on a fell known as Ill-gill Head The road, in places unfenced, stays close to the northern shore of the lake and is fringed by sheep cropped herbage and gorse, the yellow blossoms of which enliven the district in spring. Where visitors stop, there are usually black-headed gulls, their raucous cries instilling a little life into the rock scape.

The glorious scenery unfolds slowly as the journey proceeds. On the left is Yewbarrow, which is not much higher than 2, 000ft (600m) but has a 'mountain' appearance. It is a long drag over grassy terrain to get to the summit, which is a vantage point for the really big fells of the dalehead. However, they can also be seen and admired from a car. At centre stage is Great Gable in the form of a rugged pyramid, which confirms everyone's impression of what a mountain should be. Gable's companions are Kirk Fell to the left and Scafell Pike (At least, that's how it seems from the floor of Wasdale Valley), though Scafell Pike is the highest peak in England.

WASDALE HEAD THE LAKE DISTRICT

Wasdale Head is a surprise to those who expect a dale to get narrower and rockier as it comes to its head. For here is a great tract of alluvial soil, thatched in lush green, overlaid by an intricate (and altogether fascinating) pattern of dry stone walls. So much stone was cleared from the land that a lot was simply heaped up and walled around. The Wasdale Head Inn has rooms decked with photographs of early climbers. There is also a Ritson Bar, named after Will Ritson, an archetypal dalesman who told 'tall' stories and was fond of saying that Wasdale had the biggest mountain, the deepest lake and the biggest liar himself.

VIKING CROSS THE LAKE DISTRICT

On the way from Wasdale, stop in Gosforth to see the 14ft (4.5m) carved Viking Cross in the churchyard at St Mary's. Made of red sandstone and somewhat worn after nine centuries of wind and rain, the cross was raised when paganism was giving way to Christianity. Images from Norse mythology and Christian symbolism are portrayed.

ENNERDALE BRIDGE

At Calder Bridge, leave the A595 for a hill road to Ennerdale Bridge. A stone circle to the right on the moor towards the end of this section is, indeed, a Victorian spoof. A road, ending in a car park, connects the Village of Ennerdale Bridge with the end of the public road by Ennerdale Water.

LAKE DISTRICT WALKS

Walkers on the Coast to Coast route (St Bees to Robin Hoods Bay) and day trippers with plenty of time and energy walk to the head of Ennerd ale. The lower reaches were desecrated by water authority and forestry interests, the period of the massed trees dating from 1927 before the Forestry Commission became 'environmentally friendly'. More recently, the effect has been softened by maturing timber, sensible management and some amenity planting. As the backwoods are left behind, the towering peaks of Great Gable, Kirk Fell, Pillar and Steeple come into view with Hay Stacks rising behind a solitary building, BIack Sail youth hostel.