The Lake District National Park is a national park in North West England that includes all of the central Lake District, though the town of Kendal, some coastal areas, and the Lakeland Peninsulas are outside the park boundary. The area was designated a national park on 9 May 1951 (less than a month after the first UK national park designation — the

Peak District The Peak District is an upland area in England at the southern end of the Pennines. Mostly in Derbyshire, it extends into Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Staffordshire, West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire. It includes the Dark Peak, where moorla ...

). It retained its original boundaries until 2016 when it was extended by 3% in the direction of the

Yorkshire Dales National Park The Yorkshire Dales National Park is a national park in England covering most of the Yorkshire Dales. Most of the park is in North Yorkshire, with a sizeable area in Westmorland (Cumbria) and a small part in Lancashire. The park was designa ...

to incorporate areas such as land of high landscape value in the Lune Valley. It is the most visited national park in the United Kingdom with 16.4 million visitors per year and more than 24 million visitor-days per year, the largest of the thirteen national parks in England and Wales, and the second largest in the UK after the Cairngorms National Park. Its aim is to protect the landscape by restricting unwelcome change by industry or commerce. Most of the land in the park is in private ownership, with about 55% registered as agricultural land. Landowners include: * Individual farmers and other private landowners, with more than half of the agricultural land farmed by the owners. *The

National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...

owns around 25% of the total area (including some lakes and land of significant landscape value). * The Forestry Commission and other investors in forests and woodland. *

United Utilities United Utilities Group plc (UU), the United Kingdom's largest listed water company, was founded in 1995 as a result of the merger of North West Water and NORWEB. The group manages the regulated water and waste water network in North West Engla ...

(owns 8%) * Lake District National Park Authority (owns 3.9%) The National Park Authority is based at offices in Kendal. It runs a visitor centre on

Windermere Windermere (sometimes tautologically called Windermere Lake to distinguish it from the nearby town of Windermere) is the largest natural lake in England. More than 11 miles (18 km) in length, and almost 1 mile (1.5 km) at its wides ...

at a former country house called Brockhole, Coniston Boating Centre, and Information Centres. In common with all other national parks in England, there is no restriction on entry to, or movement within the park along public routes, but access to cultivated land is usually restricted to public footpaths, bridleways and byways. Much of the uncultivated land has statutory open access rights, which cover around 50% of the park. The Coast to Coast Walk, which crosses the north of England from the Irish Sea to the North Sea, traverses the national park from west to east. Farmland, settlement and mining have altered the natural scenery, and the ecology has been modified by human influence for

millennia A millennium (plural millennia or millenniums) is a period of one thousand years, sometimes called a kiloannum (ka), or kiloyear (ky). Normally, the word is used specifically for periods of a thousand years that begin at the starting point (ini ...

and includes important

wildlife habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

s. Having failed in a previous attempt to gain

World Heritage Site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...

status as a natural site, because of human activities, it was eventually successful in the category of cultural landscape and was awarded the status in 2017.

References

External links

Lake District National Park Authority
{{Authority control Protected areas established in 1951 Lake District National parks in England