The Lake District, also known as The Lakes or Lakeland, is a rural area in North West England. A popular holiday destination, it is famous for its lakes and its mountains

The Lake District's geology is complex but well-studied. Its oldest rocks are the Skiddaw Slate series and the Borrowdale Volcanic series dating back to the Ordovician, some 500 million years ago. The Skiddaw Slates are found in the northern part of the park and were probably deposited in shallow seas; their thickness is unknown.

The area is home to a plethora of wildlife, some of which is unique in England. It provides a home for the red squirrel and colonies of sundew, one of the few carnivorous plants native to Britain. England's only nesting pair of Golden Eagles can be found in the Lake District. Sadly the female Golden Eagle has not been seen since 2004 although the male still remains.

The lakes of the Lake District support three rare and endangered species of fish: the vendace, which can be found only in Bassenthwaite Lake and Derwent Water, the schelly, which lives in Brothers Water, Haweswater, Red Tarn and Ullswater, and the arctic charr, which can be found in Buttermere, Coniston Water, Crummock Water, Ennerdale Water, Haweswater, Loweswater, Thirlmere, Wast water, and Windermere.

The vendace (Coregonus vandesius) is England's rarest species of fish, and is only found in the Lake District.In recent years, some important changes have been made to fisheries byelaws covering the north-west region of England, to help protect some of the rarest fish species.