LakesLakes & lochs

Alone among the Cumbrian waters in being called a lake by name, a shallow sheet under Skiddaw where ospreys returned to breed.

Cumbria

Man-made lakes on the Stackpole estate, covered in water lilies in June and part of a nature reserve.

Pembrokeshire

Below Kirkstone Pass at the head of Patterdale, its name recalls two brothers said to have drowned there.

Cumbria

Pair of tranquil forest ponds in the heart of the Forest of Dean, ringed by an easy walk.

Gloucestershire

Where Donald Campbell died chasing the water speed record, and the lake Arthur Ransome remade as Swallows and Amazons country.

Cumbria

Fed by the falls of Scale Force, this Buttermere-valley lake is ringed by Mellbreak and the high western fells.

Cumbria

Keswick's lake, ringed by fells and dotted with islands, with the jaws of Borrowdale opening to the south.

Cumbria

The smallest of the Langdale lakes, its reedy bays giving views to the Langdale Pikes above Elterwater village.

Cumbria

Near Hawkshead and Beatrix Potter's Hill Top, this gentle lake is thick with reeds and birdlife.

Cumbria

Quieter of the two Frensham ponds, ringed by reed and heath with a boardwalk trail through the surrounding common.

Surrey

Northumberland's largest natural lake, a reedy water below the crags of Hadrian's Wall near Housesteads.

Northumberland

Largest of the Norfolk Broads, a shallow reedy expanse and nature reserve noted for swallowtail butterflies and marsh birds.

Norfolk

Scotland's only water called a lake, holding the island priory of Inchmahome where the child Mary, Queen of Scots was sheltered.

Stirling

South Wales's largest natural lake, holding a rare early-medieval crannog in the foothills of the Brecon Beacons.

Powys

Unusually, this small north-western fell lake drains inland toward the other lakes rather than the sea.

Cumbria

Wooded reservoir on the edge of Lymm village, a peaceful circular walk of water, dingle and gorge.

Cheshire

Formed where the River Wey was dammed, this reedbed lagoon in the middle of Weymouth is now a town-centre RSPB reserve.

Dorset

Boardwalks cross fen and carr to this Norfolk Broad, with a floating visitor centre and a famous view from Ranworth church tower.

Norfolk

Between Grasmere and Ambleside, this small lake sits close to Rydal Mount, where Wordsworth spent his later years.

Cumbria

In quiet Raydale, the Yorkshire Dales' largest natural lake carries a legend of a drowned city beneath its surface.

North Yorkshire

Cornwall's largest natural freshwater lake, held back from the sea by the shingle bar of Loe Bar near Helston.

Cornwall

The second largest lake in the Lake District, a curving water in Patterdale where Wordsworth saw the daffodils of his most famous poem.

Cumbria

An eighteenth-century ornamental lake in Windsor Great Park, complete with cascade, transplanted Roman columns and a totem pole.

Surrey

England's deepest lake, backed by the Screes and the country's highest ground, once voted the nation's favourite view.

Cumbria

Twin lakes in Milton Keynes with a lakeside park, watersports and a Buddhist Peace Pagoda on the northern shore.

Buckinghamshire