Countrystride #109: Aira Force - Lakeland pleasure ground

Countrystride

...in which we take a timeless tour of Aira Force – one of Lakeland's enduring honeypots – to uncover a history that takes in Victorian tourists, Colonial tree collectors and Baronial money and power. Treading paths trod for generations, we set out from the Pinetum glade in the company of National Trust Cultural Heritage Curator Harvey Wilkinson and consider Aira Force's early days, when oaks dominated the gorge and deer swept the fells. Entering woodland, we discuss the one-time estate's transition to pleasure ground in the age of the nouveau riche Merchant Princes of northern England. With diversions to talk Potter, politics and poetry, we reach the mighty Force itself, where we consider the sublime power that still draws crowds in their hundred-thousand, and the management challenges that face the Trust in an era of heavy footfall and increasingly extreme weather.

• For more details on Aira Force and Gowbarrow Park, see ationaltrust.org.uk/visit/lake-district/aira-force-and-gowbarrow-park