Hotels in Cumbria

Centred on the Lake District National Park where rugged glaciated scenery encourages tourism, sheep farming and forestry, Cumbria features some magnificent scenery, and is England’s second-largest county.

Although the north west coast is fairly industrialised, the Lake District National Park covers a massive 224,000 hectares, 57,000 of which is owned by the National Trust. The park encompasses a vast area of mountains, lakes, and moorland, including the central fells and six of the main lakes; some of the best walking country in the UK. Part of the Yorkshire Dales National Park juts into Cumbria in the southeast, and the Northumberland National Park and Border Forest Park (FP) run along part of the northeast border.

Cumbria was initially settled by Neolithic and Bronze Age peoples, but as with much of England was later taken over by Romans. Their occupation was largely of a military character and Hadrian's Wall (a hand built stone wall that runs the whole width of the country, designed to defend Roman England from the marauding Scots) was completed by about 133 AD, with its west end at Bowness, just north of Carlisle. Following the departure of the Romans, the region alternated between Scottish and English rule, until the union of the crowns of England and Scotland in 1603.