'I followed in William Wordsworth's footsteps in the Lake District - it's still as captivating as ever'

It’s not surprising that you feel an affinity with the one-time poet laureate William Wordsworth as you walk in his footsteps.

After all, it’s the very spot where the great Romantic poet of the 19th Century ‘wandered lonely as a cloud’.

The very place where he saw ‘a host of golden daffodils’ that inspired his classic poem. They’re still there today - ‘beside the lake, beneath the trees, fluttering and dancing in the breeze.’

Wordsworth came across them on April 15th, 1802, as he and his sister Dorothy were on their way home, heading for Grasmere after visiting friends near Ullswater on the north eastern side of the English Lake District.

The exact location - now called Wordsworth Point in Glencoyne Bay - is just 20 yards or so from a two-car lay-by on the A592 from Glenridding towards Penrith, and it’s still a shrine to those who love the way in which Wordsworth expresses his love of nature.

Safer to park at the National Trust car park at Glencoyne Bay, though it’s a half-hour walk down the lakeside.

Those in the know make their way to Wordsworth Point, staying at the renowned Inn on the Lake, the four-star hotel that looks out from the southern end of the eight-mile long stretch of water.

The views are to die for, the peace and serenity of Wordsworth’s domain is captured perfectly at the Inn, one of the six properties in the family-owned Lake District Hotels group.(www.lakedistricthotels.net)

Outside the hotel, the grounds sweep majestically down to the lake, where you can go beneath a spreading tree, surrounded by daffodils, the whole scene replicating the one that Wordsworth discovered just a short distance away. Full marks to the hotel gardeners.

With the mountains rising high above on either side of the lake, and the Cumbria to Yorkshire Coast to Coast Path passing nearby, this is the true Lake District. The busy, busy, busy tourist traps of Windermere, Bowness and Ambleside are miles away.

Wordsworth would surely have enjoyed the ambience, and appreciated the hotel’s tasteful interior design, which complements nature’s surrounding beauty outside.

Nearby, you can catch an Ullswater Steamer - it’s the real McCoy - and take an hour’s cruise to Pooley Bridge, at the northern end of the lake. Or better still, you can don your walking shoes and drop off at Aira Force en route.

Just half an hour from the daffodil-decked shoreline you can see nature in the raw in the form of a 70ft-high waterfall, now protected by the National Trust.

Incidentally, it was out on Ullswater that Sir Donald Campbell achieved his first water speed record in his jet-propelled Bluebird K7 when he powered his way to 202.32 mph in 1955. That was before he transferred to Coniston Water, when he came to grief in 1967 as he tried in vain to hit the 300 mph mark.

Just 24 miles away from the Inn on the Lake - over the spectacular Kirkstone Pass, then on through Ambleside – is Grasmere, where Wordsworth lived most of his life. (www.wordsworth.org.uk) That was in Dove Cottage, followed by nearby Rydal Mount, which are both ‘must visits’ for you to immerse yourself in all that the great poet held dear.

So dear, in fact, that he described early 19th Century Grasmere as ‘the loveliest spot that man hath ever found.’ He meant it too, as his poetry during this period is regarded as the best of his career. Little surprise that Wordsworth added: “These years have been the happiest of my life.”

Dove Cottage itself is pretty much the same today as it was when he and his wife Mary, their children, and his sister Dorothy, all crammed in to the rudimentary living space there at the end of the 18th Century and on into the early 19th.

The visitor’s experience begins with an informative ten-minute film, in which the Yorkshire-based Poet Laureate Simon Armitage explains how Wordsworth “pressed the reset button on poetry … celebrating the miracle of ordinary life.”

Wordsworth’s biographer Stephen Gill stresses how Wordsworth infused both joy and love in his poetry. The poet also gave credit where credit was due, saying of his sister Dorothy: “She gave me eyes, she gave me ears.”

Much of the cottage furniture is original, and visitors can walk through the downstairs living room and bedroom, then go up the stairs to see William and Mary’s bedroom, complete with the desk where Wordsworth penned his poetry. With the coming of children, Dorothy had to retreat to a small bedroom which she plastered with copies of The Times, for either inspiration or for insulation from the winter cold of the Lake District.

The Wordsworth Trust was able to implement a £6.5 million transformation of the two properties, and earned them Cumbria Tourist Awards ‘Small Visitor Attraction of the Year’ award.

Finally, just down the road from Grasmere is Rydal Mount and Garden (www.rydalmount.co.uk), the final home of the Wordsworths when they outgrew cramped Dove Cottage. It was William’s home between 1813 and his death in 1850; it has super views of lakes and fells alike; and it is still owned by the family.

The house has five acres of garden, which remains as William designed it. Naturally, there’s a host of golden daffodils covering one huge bank in the garden, in memory of the poet’s daughter Dora, who died of TB three years before him.

www.cumbriatourism.org; www.visitcumbria.com