We can now count the Lake District alongside the Taj Mahal, the Tower of London and the Great Barrier Reef. Thank you to everyone who has supported us on the journey so far. Read our Blog articles and discover what makes our beautiful landscape so special. Would you like to contribute to the blog? Get in touch, we’d love to hear from you, contact us
There are parts of the English Lake District's World Heritage story that warrant further explanation. The traditional methods of farming the fells and mountains include hefting, a way of farming that is incredibly important in the Lakes, in the past but also now and into the future. Below Mervyn Edwards MBE, former upland farming adviser for MAFF, Defra and Natural England, and now member of the English Lake District World Heritage Site Technical Advice Group explains what hefting is.
The reasons why the English Lake District is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, or what our Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) is, are complicated. They are both tangible and intangible and this makes explaining them difficult.
So when the chance comes along to try and explain OUV via professional photography, you should really grasp the opportunity quickly.
Local tour operator Hidden Lakeland highlights the unique experiences offered by exploring the English Lake District World Heritage Site by public transport.
Sunday 12th January is the National Trust’s 125th anniversary. Happy birthday!
The National Trust was established back in 1895 by Octavia Hill, Sir Robert Hunter and Canon Hardwicke Rawnsley. They shared a belief in the importance of historic places and green spaces, and fought to preserve them for everyone’s ‘enjoyment, refreshment and rest’. Today the National Trust is Europe’s largest conservation charity, with 5.6 million members, 65,000 volunteers and 14,000 staff, caring for over 250,000 hectares of farmland, 780 miles of coastline and 500 historic properties, gardens and nature reserves, for everyone, for ever.
The English Lake District World Heritage stand at 2019's Westmorland County Show, with some local businesses really using World Heritage status within their operations.
How hotel Another Place in Ullswater uses World Heritage stories to strengthen its sense of place, and provide its guests a more authentic Lake District experience.
The first book about the Lake District as a World Heritage Site has just been published. Titled Hows and Knotts: A Guide to Lakeland Views the book explains why the Lake District received the World Heritage accolade from UNESCO by taking the reader to 22 viewpoints in the National Park and then describing features of interest and why they are there.
Lakeland Farm Visitor Centre is a new and exciting authentic farm visitor experience in The Lake District. Located at Ings, between Staveley and Windermere the centre offers a great day out for the whole family.
Cumbria Tourism has launched a £285,000 marketing campaign aiming to rebuild visitor confidence in train services and positively inspire potential visitors to the English Lake District.
Thursday 18th April is World Heritage Day. World Heritage is the shared wealth of humanity, both natural and cultural. Protecting and preserving these valuable assets needs the collective efforts of all communities. This celebratory day provides the chance to raise awareness about the diversity of cultural heritage and the efforts that are required to protect and conserve it.
England’s Northern World Heritage Story: The North is a VisitEngland Discover England Fund project led by Cumbria Tourism. Its primary goal is to raise awareness of and increase visitor numbers to the six UNESCO World Heritage Sites in across Northern England - Saltaire, Hadrian's Wall, Durham Castle & Cathedral, Studley Royal Park & Fountains Abbey, Liverpool Mercantile Maritime City and the English Lake District.
Countrystride is a podcast initiative aiming to broadcast the very essence of the English Lake District World Heritage Site and its wider regional setting.
Twelve new slate plaques have been installed at Crow Park on the shores of Derwent Water at Keswick, the official site which celebrates the Lake District's inscription as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Jamie Lund, deputy chair of the WHS’ Technical Advisor Group and the National Trust’s Archaeologist & Cultural Heritage Advisor, recently represented the English Lake District World Heritage Site and the Lake District National Park Partnership at two conferences in San Francisco.
The English Lake District is part of a UK family of 31 World Heritage Sites, from St Kilda in the north, to the Cornish Mines in the south. This family even extends beyond the UK’s shores to a handful of overseas territories, in the Atlantic and all the way to the Pacific. This group comes together once a year for the annual World Heritage:UK conference.
On 26 March 2018, His Royal Highness, The Prince of Wales unveiled of the official plaque to designate the Lake District National Park as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
William Wordsworth, in The Prelude, describes how the natural world of the Lake District meant so much to him from early childhood and how essential nature is to the human soul. The Lake District is still an area where there are many special places for nature and wildlife managed for the intrinsic value of their biodiversity and geology, for the benefits they provide and for the pleasure they bring to locals and visitors alike.
Last week we completed a major milestone in the Lake District’s nomination to be a World Heritage Site, with two expert assessors from UNESCO’s cultural heritage advisory body visiting us. It was a near impossible task to do this wonderful place justice in just a week, but the Lake District National Park, together with a range of organisations from the partnership, pulled together a fantastic programme showcasing three key themes of the bid: identity, inspiration and conservation.
Euston Station welcomed ‘a host of golden daffodils’ earlier today, as part of a new campaign to encourage the public to see the Lake District as ‘Wordsworth Country’ once again.
The Wordsworth Trust wants to get ‘Wordsworth Country’ back in the popular imagination, and raise awareness of the many sites of natural beauty that helped inspire the writer whose works have helped to draw visitors to the region which he described as “the loveliest spot that man hath ever found”.
Let’s take a look at some of the unique and spectacular places around the world that the Lake District could potentially be listed alongside if we are lucky enough to be granted World Heritage status.
The Lake District is a cultural landscape that has inspired generations of artists, writers, industrialists, entrepreneurs and farmers to shape the world around them. It is continually changing as communities, visitors and businesses blend together to create an evolving masterpiece.
