60 free Lake District trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Lake District trivia quiz covers England's best-loved national park from its highest fell to its deepest lake and the writers who made it famous. The easy questions handle the county, Scafell Pike, Windermere, the Lake Poets and the only lake with 'Lake' in its name. From there it moves into the landscape's stories: the wettest village in England, Keswick's pencils, the Neolithic axe factory, the Norse words behind fell and tarn, and the sheep breed Beatrix Potter fought to preserve. The harder end is for fell-walkers and Lakeland regulars: Wainwright's day job and where his ashes went, the aeroplane on Helvellyn's summit, Wordsworth's rent at Dove Cottage, the lake where Campbell set his 1955 record before Coniston claimed him, the fish that survives only in Derwent Water, and the 1698 traveller who crossed Kirkstone Pass on horseback. Every answer was checked against encyclopaedia entries on the Lake District, its lakes, fells, towns, people and produce, and the supporting sentence is stored with each question. If you enjoy this one, our England geography, William Wordsworth and Beatrix Potter quizzes are natural next stops.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The Lake District lies in which English county?
Cumbria
It is a mountainous region and national park in North West England, famed for its lakes, fells and literary associations.
Q 02What is the highest mountain in England, found in the Lake District?
Scafell Pike
It sits in a caldera left by ancient pyroclastic eruptions, and its summit plateau is fringed by crags on every side.
Q 03How high is England's highest mountain?
978 m
Until the early 1800s nobody knew it was England's highest; the Ordnance Survey first labelled it simply 'Sca-Fell Higher Top'.
Q 04Which is the longest and largest lake in England?
Windermere
It runs about 11 miles from Waterhead to Newby Bridge, holds 18 islands and has been a tourist magnet since the railway arrived in 1847.
Q 05Which is the deepest lake in England, at 79 metres?
Wast Water
Its famous screes tumble into the water below Illgill Head, and its head is ringed by Great Gable, Lingmell and England's highest peak.
Q 06In what year was the Lake District National Park established?
1951
It came a month after the Peak District, the first UK national park, and was extended east by 3% in 2016.
Q 07The Lake District became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in which year?
2017
The park covers 2,362 square kilometres, though Kendal and the Furness peninsulas lie outside its boundary.
Q 08Only one of the Lakeland lakes is officially called a 'Lake' rather than a mere, water or tarn. Which?
Bassenthwaite
All the others are meres, waters or tarns; 'water' is the most common ending and 'mere' the rarest.
Q 09How many major lakes does the Lake District contain?
16
Most fill U-shaped glacial valleys, and pairs such as Buttermere and Crummock Water were once single lakes divided by silt.
Q 10Seathwaite in Borrowdale holds what soggy distinction?
Wettest inhabited place in England
It averages about 3,300 mm of rain a year, and nearby Sprinkling Tarn tops 5,000 mm.
Q 11On average, snow falls on Helvellyn on how many days a year?
67
The fell tops also see around 100 days of gales a year, against just five in the sheltered valleys.
Q 12Which industry grew up in Keswick thanks to locally mined graphite?
Pencil making
Miners called the substance wad, black lead or plumbago; in the mid-19th century the area also supplied half the world's textile bobbins.
Q 13In Neolithic times the Langdale Pikes were the site of a 'factory' producing what?
Stone axes
Langdale tuff axes have been found all over Britain, and some of the country's earliest stone circles are linked to the trade.
Q 21Beatrix Potter bought which farm at Near Sawrey in 1905 with the proceeds of her books?
Hill Top
She later married the Hawkshead solicitor William Heelis and became a prize-winning breeder of Lakeland fell sheep.
Q 22On her death in 1943, Beatrix Potter left over 4,000 acres and a dozen farms to which organisation?
The National Trust
Its founding secretary, Hardwicke Rawnsley, had been vicar of Wray and a formative influence on her.
Q 23Which hardy Lakeland sheep breed did Beatrix Potter champion?
Herdwick
About 95% of the 50,000 or so live within 14 miles of Coniston, which left them badly exposed in the 2001 foot-and-mouth outbreak.
Q 14The Castlerigg stone circle near Keswick has been dated to roughly when?
3200 BC
Counts of its stones range from 38 to 42 depending on whether the small packing stones are included.
Q 15Which poet's 1810 Guide to the Lakes was especially influential in popularising the region?
William Wordsworth
By 1835 the guide had reached its fifth edition under a much longer title.
Q 16Wordsworth's 'I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud' was inspired by daffodils on the shore of which lake?
Ullswater
He saw them in April 1802 on the way home from visiting his friend Thomas Clarkson.
Q 17Wordsworth, Coleridge and Southey are known collectively as what?
The Lake Poets
Southey lived in Keswick for forty years and Wordsworth succeeded him as Poet Laureate in 1843.
Q 18Dove Cottage in Grasmere, home to William and Dorothy Wordsworth from 1799 to 1808, was originally what?
A public house
It was recorded as the Dove and Olive inn in 1617; Thomas De Quincey moved in after the Wordsworths left.
Q 19How much annual rent did the Wordsworths pay for Dove Cottage when they moved in on 20 December 1799?
£5
The landlord was John Benson of Grasmere; the Wordsworth Trust bought the cottage in 1890 and opened it as a museum the next year.
Q 20Where is Wordsworth buried?
Grasmere churchyard
He spent sixty of his eighty years in the Lakes; Hartley Coleridge, the poet's son, lies near him.
Q 24Which dale in the south-west of the district was Wordsworth's favourite?
Dunnerdale
Also called the Duddon Valley, it lies well away from the busy central lakes.
Q 25The Lakeland sheep-counting rhyme 'Yan tan tethera' survives from which linguistic roots?
Brittonic Celtic
It is still taught in some local schools; 'fell' and 'tarn', by contrast, are Viking imports.
Q 26The Lakeland words 'fell', 'tarn' and 'howe' come from which language?
Old Norse
Viking settlers brought fjallr for mountain and tjern for a small lake; 'thwaite' and 'beck' are from the same source.
Q 27Alfred Wainwright's seven-volume Pictorial Guide covers how many Lakeland fells?
214
He drew and hand-lettered every page himself between 1952 and 1966, at about a page per evening.
Q 28Wainwright devised which 182-mile footpath crossing the Lake District from west to east?
The Coast to Coast Walk
It runs from the Irish Sea to the North Sea and remains popular today.
Q 29What was Wainwright's day job in Kendal from 1948 to 1967?
Borough Treasurer
The Blackburn-born accountant took a pay cut in 1941 to move closer to the fells.
Q 30Where were Wainwright's ashes scattered by his widow Betty?
Innominate Tarn on Haystacks
He was a lifelong Blackburn Rovers fan and a founder member of the club's supporters' association.