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Bassenthwaite Lake

Here's one for the pub quiz: Which is the only lake in the Lake District? Answer: Bassenthwaite, because all the others are either waters or meres. Only 70 feet deep and with borders rich in vegetation, Bassenthwaite provides an ideal habitat for birds - more than 70 species have been recorded around the lake. Successful breeding is encouraged by the fact that no power boats are allowed on the lake and some areas are off limits to boats of any kind. Also, most of the shoreline is privately owned, with public access restricted mostly to the eastern shore where the Allerdale Ramble follows the lakeside for a couple of miles or so.

At the northern end of the lake, at Coalbeck Farm, Trotters World of Animals is home to many hundreds of animals - rare breeds, traditional farm favourites, endangered species, birds of prey and reptiles. It has the only Canadian Lynx in the UK, the largest of all monkeys - the mandrills - and the smallest otter in the world, as well as a cat that likes to swim - the Asian Fishing Cat. In addition to the ring-tailed lemurs, wallabies, racoons and gibbons, there are also rough-coated lemurs, lechwe antelope, red, fallow and sika deer and guanaco. Visitors to the 25-acre site can bottle-feed baby animals, cuddle bunnies, meet Monty the python, take a tractor trailer ride, watch the birds of prey demonstrations, find a quiet picnic spot or sample the fare on offer in Trotters Tea Room. And for the smaller children there's an indoor soft play climbing centre.

Rising grandly above Bassenthwaite's eastern shore is Skiddaw, which, ever since the Lake District was opened up to tourists by the arrival of the railway in the 19th century, has been one of the most popular peaks to climb. Although it rises to some 3054 feet, the climb is both safe and manageable, if a little unattractive lower down, and typically takes around two hours. From the summit, on a clear day, there are spectacular views to Scotland in the north, the Isle of Man in the west, the Pennines to the east and, to the south, the greater part of the Lake District.

Also on the eastern shore is the secluded, originally Norman, Church of St Bridget and St Bega which Tennyson had in mind when, in his poem Morte d'Arthur, he describes Sir Bedivere carrying the dead King Arthur:

to a chapel in the fields,
A broken chancel with a broken cross,
That stood on a dark strait of barren land.

This then would make Bassenthwaite Lake the resting place of Excalibur but, as yet, no one has reported seeing a lady's arm, "clothed in white samite, mystic, wonderful", rising from the waters and holding aloft the legendary sword.

Set back from the lakeside and with a backdrop of wooded hills, Mirehouse is a 17th-century building that has been home to the Spedding family since 1688. Literary visitors to the house included Tennyson, Thomas Carlyle and Edward Fitzgerald, the poet and translator of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. As well as some manuscripts by these family friends, the house also has a fine collection of furniture, and visitors can wander around the wildflower meadow, the walled garden and the lakeside walk, or sample home-cooked Cumbrian food in the tearoom.