Cumbria (or Cumberland as it was called until recent years), occupies 2,629 square miles of the North West of England. The county boundaries are the Irish Sea to the west, from the Solway Firth in the north to Morecambe Bay in the South (with it's well-known cockling industry), the Scottish border to the north and the Pennine hills to the east.

Major towns: Carlisle - being it's administrative centre Barrow-in-Furness (famous for it's ship building yard) Kendal (market town)
Whitehaven (3rd largest port in England during the mid-18th century) Workington (an ancient market and industrial town) Penrith (orginally built as a market town)

Cumbria was formed from Cumberland and Westmoreland in the early seventies.

The Tourism side of Cumbria is well known as the English Lake District, comprising 15 lakes and two of England's highest mountain peaks called Scafell and Helvellyn. There are many remnants of the Roman era too, Castlerigg stone circle on a hill east of Keswick in the Northern Lake District.

The Lake District is a well known scenic resort for artists and writers who spend many months in the peace and tranquility it has to offer, after all, William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge found it perfect for their love of the written word and artistic outlook.

The Lake District National Park is one of the thirteen National Parks in England, it is entirely within the Cumbrian borders, made popular during the 19th century by the poetry and writings of William Wordsworth and still today is visited by millions of tourists year after year who visit Dove Cottage in Grasmere.

There are many major and minor Towns in the Lake District, people will argue as to which is the most important, let's look at it in a visitor's way, as the railway ends in Windermere our journey will start there. (how to get to Windermere station in the first place) Visit the towns and villages of the Lake District --->Here