Photogenic and haunting, the Lake District is in a league of its own. Eulogised by the likes of Wordsworth and Blake, this sprawling region of more than 2,000 square kilometers on the western edge of The North is awash with rolling fells and slate-clad screes, windswept ridges and deep oak forests. It comes interspersed with mountain lakes - Wastwater, Windermere - that glisten and shimmer like watery mirrors below the peaks of Scafell Pike, Skiddaw and the Great Gable. Walking trails of lichen-studded cobbles weave their way through the wildernesses, hopping over the winding Derwent on old stone bridges; sitting dark in the shadow of the Helvellyn massif. By summer, the ridges glow a deep green; speckles of black and brown marking the cairns on their backbones. Winter brings snow and a veneer of pearly white to the whole area, and casts the charming stone villages and their rose gardens in layers of snow; the likes of Bowness-on-Windermere with the old homestead of Beatrix Potter and Cockermouth where the great Romantic Wordsworth would once have brooded. Lake District tour guides now offer everything from literary circuits of the region to high-adrenaline gorge trekking and more traditional hikes, making the area as versatile as it is attractive!