by David Murray on February 22, 2012
Today we have a new walking guide , an excellent companion to Cicerone’s earlier volume, Walking in Cumbria’s Eden Valley. Then we have a new Lake District map, this time not one designed to give detailed information while out and about, such as the various types of map we discussed some weeks ago, but rather to show the contours in a special 3D effect.
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The Lune Valley and Howgills – a Walking Guide is a welcome new addition to the Cicerone selection of walking guides covering areas of the North of England, and especially walking in the Lake District. Strictly speaking, of course, The Lune Valley and Howgills are outside the Lake District National Park, but we include them because they’re within the Lakeland county of Cumbria and northern Lancashire. This volume contains forty walks well away from the tourist hotspots, varying from short strolls to more demanding days of ten miles or more.
Cover price: £12.99. Amazon.co.uk price (22/02/12): £9.71. Check latest price
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Lake District Map in 3D
Also published at the beginning of this year is a great 3D map of the Central Lake District from Deepmaps. It is in fact flat, but printed in such a way as to be 3-dimensional to the eye. Click on the link above or on the image for more details and to buy from Amazon.co.uk.
If you prefer a genuine physically three dimensional Lake District map take a look at this one: A Lake District Raised Relief Map, in a Light Wood Frame
by David Murray on February 11, 2012
This book, The Big Walks of the North, is not specifically about walking in the Lake District but as some of the long distance walks included here involve parts of Cumbria I decided we could stretch a point, especially as the Independent has listed it at number three in its “10 Best Walking Guides“.
The author, David Bathurst, does his research well and pays attention not only to the landscape but also to the history of the areas walked. Another useful feature is that he does not assume that his readers will want to tramp an entire long distance walk but identifies the rambler’s equivalents of “bite-sized chunks”.
The North East and Scotland are represented (for example The Cleveland Way and The West Highland Way) and the Hadrian’s Wall Path, The Pennine Way and the Coast to Coast are all here so enthusiasts for Lake District walks will find much of interest relating to the fringes and the nearby surroundings of the National Park.
In addition to The Big Walks of the North David Bathurst has written similar books on other areas of the country, including:
Coming soon is:
Walking in the Lake District
For books specifically about Lake District walks see:
by David Murray on February 10, 2012
This book, England’s Landscape: The North West by Angus Winchester and Alan Crosby was published in 2006 by English Heritage. It is No. 8 in a series covering the regions of England and includes chiefly the three historic (as distinct from current administrative) counties of Lancashire, Westmorland and Cumberland.
This is a comprehensive coverage of landscapes of many types. The region is blessed with an enormous diversity. The two main lowland areas of North Cumbria and West Lancashire could scarcely be different from the mountainous massif of the Lake District and the high moorland of the Pennines.
In addition to the rocks and rivers the human activity around them is surveyed, we read of men extracting coal and minerals from deep under the earth and leaving their mark above it in what we now see as fascinating industrial heritage. Buildings – houses and castles, churches and chapels, mills and mines – are all part of this story and their existence all flowed from the nature of the rock and earth beneath them.
The growth of agricultural villages, both lowland and upland, is explored and so is the more recent (ie. two hundred years or so) spread of industrial towns and cities based on iron, coal and plentiful soft water, along with the west coast ports and the development of the region’s extensive transportation networks – roads, canals, railways and back to roads.
England’s Landscape: The North West is beautifully illustrated with colour photography and also with maps, charts and diagrams to help the reader understand the way that the region has developed over the years through human settlement, economic activity and, more recently, conservation – of both the natural and built environment.
This is a book to be read by all who are seriously interested in the North West. How can we think constructively about our future if we do not understand how we came to be where we are?
Other Volumes in the “England’s Landscape” Series
More on the Landscape of the North West
