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): 33 miles

Width (north to south): 40 miles

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 National Park

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

• 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'
• In the heavy rain of January 2005 Windermere rose by about a metre overnight – that’s equal to about 17,000,000,000 (seventeen thousand million) litres of water!

14 main lakes in order of size - area to the nearest hectare

A hectare is equivalent to 10,000 square metres

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

Total: 5669 hectares

People

• There are 12 million visitors a year (Source: 1994 All Parks Visitor Survey)
• Visitors to the Lake District come by private motor vehicle: 89 per cent
• 42,239 people live within the boundaries of the National Park. (Source: 1991 census)

Housing

• 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)

Weather

Mean temperature in Ambleside:

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

Annual rainfall:

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

Cultural Heritage

Over 6000 known archaeological sites and monuments dating from prehistory to World War II, including over 200 scheduled ancient monuments

1740 listed buildings and structures

21 Conservation Areas covering historic towns and villages

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