Essential Hotels > England > Cumbria > Grasmere

Grasmere is a famous village in the heart of the Lake District. Like many towns and villages in this part of Cumbria, the town is named for the adjacent lake. Lake Grasmere is smaller than, say, Windermere, but no less scenic. Indeed, Grasmere is famed for its connections to the Romantic poet William Wordsworth, who found the region so beautiful that he spent much of his life in and around here, and is even buried here. Grasmere sits a few miles north of the town of Ambleside at the tip of Windermere, meaning that a visit to this part of the Lake District puts guests in a central position for exploring Lakeland. The town is small and charming, and is filled with shops and hotels, ideal for the many visitors that descend on the Lake District National Park every summer. Hiking and walking are popular activities in the surrounding area, and many enjoy seeing the annual Grasmere Sports event, with activities including wrestling, hill running and dog trials.

However, despite the miles and miles of scenic beauty offered by the Lake District National Park, Grasmere will always be remembered for its connections to William Wordsworth. Wordsworth and his fellow wordsmiths Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey were all inspired by this corner of Northwest England and came to be known collectively as the Lake Poets. Both Coleridge and Southey chose to live in Keswick, a dozen or so miles north of Grasmere. Through Wordsworth, the author Thomas De Quincey also became a resident of Grasmere. He is most famous for his autobiographical ‘Confessions of an English Opium-Eater’. De Quincey resided for some time in Dove Cottage. Dove Cottage is a huge local visitor attraction. It was the home of Wordsworth and his sister for almost 10 years, before accommodating Thomas De Quincey. The cottage is open to the public, and there is an informative adjoining museum. Dedicated followers of Wordsworth will also enjoy a trip to Rydal Mouth, near Ambleside, which is where Wordsworth and his family spent the rest of his life.