Wordsworth wandered lonely as a cloud round here, and anybody who has ridden the Lake District on a wet bank holiday will understand the appeal of being lonely. The English Lake District, listed by UNESCO in 2017 as a cultural landscape, is a compact knot of mountains, lakes and valleys in Cumbria, shaped by glaciers and then by centuries of sheep farming, slate quarrying and, from the late eighteenth century, by poets, painters and tourists who came looking for the sublime.
The riding is legendary, and not for the faint-hearted. The Hardknott and Wrynose passes, west of here, are among the steepest roads in England, with gradients of around one in three, hairpins that need first gear and a surface that can be broken, wet and covered in sheep droppings. Kirkstone Pass, between Ambleside and Ullswater, is the highest road pass in the Lake District, with a famous old inn at the top and a steep descent locals call The Struggle. Honister, between Borrowdale and Buttermere, passes a working slate mine. All of them are narrow, busy in summer and demand total concentration.
Ambleside, Keswick and Windermere are the main towns, with fuel, food and endless outdoor shops. Grasmere has Dove Cottage, where Wordsworth lived, and a famous gingerbread recipe sold from a tiny shop by the churchyard where the poet is buried. Pubs serve hearty food, Cumberland sausage, local lamb and real ale, and tea rooms are everywhere.
The landscape is a mosaic of rough fells, dry stone walls, green valleys and dark lakes, with the hardy Herdwick sheep, grey-fleeced and white-faced, grazing the high ground. Beatrix Potter farmed here and left much of her land to the National Trust. Weather changes in minutes, and rain is part of the experience; the western fells are among the wettest places in England.
Ride early in the morning, out of season if you can, when the passes are empty and the mist lifts off the lakes. Avoid summer weekends on the main routes, when the traffic can be gridlocked. And when you get to the top of Hardknott, stop, breathe and look back at the road you have just climbed; you have earned the view and the smug feeling that comes with it.