The Lake District is significant as a spectacular landscape; it possesses a unique combination of spectacular mountains and rugged fells, pastoral and wooded valleys, and numerous lakes, tarns and rivers. The Lake District in particular can also be considered as an associative cultural landscape by virtue of its association with some of England's most important writers, as well as its influence on conservation; the birthplace of the National Trust and of the UK's National Parks movement.
The character of the area is insperable from its cultural history, and the personalities, life styles and traditions of the Lake District people. Each valley has its own individuality, and the resulting diversity of the landscape contributes enormously to the quality of the area as a whole. The area contains one hundred-and-twenty-nine Sites of Special Scientific Interest, eight National Nature Reserves, two sites classified under the EC Birds Directive as Special Protection Areas and a whole host of other significant natural sites.