Lake District Guidebooks

Guidebooks to the English Lake District and Cumbria more generally are plentiful, and follow in a long tradition. Possibly the best known down the years has been the Romantic poet William Wordsworth’s “Guide to the Lakes” published in the mid-19th century. Another outstanding work of the past was Collingwood’s “The Lake Counties“, still available updated by William Rollinson in the 1980s from the original 1902 edition.

On this page we have a present-day selection. We have, however, included Wordsworth’s narrative guide from the 19th century, Collingwood’s (updated) from the early 20th century, and the one by Hunter Davies from the 1980s. The others below are recent editions of general Lake District guides – except that we couldn’t resist adding in a Wainwright.

See also our separate listings of guides to Lake District walks, and especially the Wainwright Guides.

Lake District (Lonely Planet Country & Regional Guides) [Paperback]