Retire to Lake District

The Lake District , perhaps uniquely in Britain , attracts visitors not only at different times of the year but the same visitors, often several times a year. The combination of lakes and fells; small deep valleys and rocky peaks presents a scene that is constantly changing with sun and season providing infinite variety.

Geologically, the district is a dome with a central core of rugged, volcanic rock and the valleys and their lakes spreading out and down in all directions like the spokes of a wheel.

The first settlers lived between the mountains and the coast some 8,000 BC because the mountains were covered in woodland and the sea helped to vary the diet. Over the next five thousand years the settlers gradually moved further into Lakeland , clearing the forests and establishing grassland. Many of the stone circles and hut circles on the fells date from the end of this period but the farming must still have been marginal. Even when the Romans arrived they appear to have built a few forts to mark their presence and just let the locals get on with their lives.

In the Dark Ages cultivation spread high up the hillsides which eventually led to soil depletion, erosion and a retreat to the valleys leaving the landscape much as it is today.

The Lake District 's popularity as a tourist destination began with two coinciding events, the French Revolution, which disrupted the educated classes' Grand Tour, and the rise of the Romantic Movement, typified by the poetry of Wordsworth and a reappraisal of landscape by Constable and Turner.

These early tourists were followed by Manchester mill owners and others made rich by the industrial revolution. They were looking for a country retreat away from the grime of industrialisation and many built imposing villas on the lake shores - particularly around Windermere which the railway reached in 1868.

Today the Lake District can be enjoyed by everyone, from hikers with one-man tents to those who prefer country house comfort and cuisine. It has resulted in some areas being completely swamped by tourists during the summer, particularly the towns of Ambleside and Keswick. It is true, as fans of the Lake district say, you can always escape the crowds in the wilder and less popular valleys but if you intend to retire to central Lakeland and want the facilities town living can provide you will be sharing it with a lot of visitors for a large part of the year.

Locals who live in these areas have the ambivalent attitude to tourists that is not uncommon among those who can never call their territory their own. But they keep their most scathing condemnation for those who retire to the area and then seek to mould it to their own requirements (See Ambleside) Concentration on the tourist industry has produced a lot of low-paid, seasonal employment and a migration from some areas of young, educated people. This, together with a number of people seeking to retire to the area, has produced an aging population which is putting a strain on services provided by local authorities in the area.