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A few days ago, TripAdvisor declared that Grasmere is the top trending UK destination among Brits for this summer. As with practically everywhere in the Lake District, the little village offers walks offering a whole load of glorious views of glimmering waters and dramatic fells. But what’s particularly special about Grasmere is that it inspired some of the most romantic writing in the English language.
William Wordsworth lived at Dove Cottage in Grasmere between 1799 and 1808. It was where he wrote some of his most famous poetry. But we’re not here to talk about William. We’re here to talk about his older sister Dorothy, who lived at the cottage with him throughout that period.
At the time, it was considered unseemly for a respectable middle-class woman to be rambling around the countryside on her own, but Dorothy did it anyway. And she wrote all about it in her Grasmere Journals, which were published posthumously in 1897.
Now, Wordsworth Grasmere (the organisation that looks after Dove Cottage) has created a free app to help visitors explore Grasmere and Rydal and experience it through the eyes of Dorothy. Dorothy Wordsworth Walks has been designed as a sort of walking companion. Using GPS technology, it will let users know when they pass by a location that Dorothy wrote about in her journal entries and poetry.
For example, she once wrote of Grasmere Lake: ‘The lake was perfectly still, the sun shone on Hill and vale, the distant Birch trees looked like large golden Flowers – nothing else in colour was distinct and separate but all the beautiful colours seemed to be melted into one another, and joined together in one mass so that there were no differences though an endless variety when one tried to find out.’
The app was created in collaboration with the University of Manchester and, through a combination of text and audio (recorded by members of Grasmere Women’s Institute), will immerse users in Dorothy’s world.
Wordsworth Grasmere suggests three different routes for making the most of its new app: the 9km route around Rydal and Grasmere, a 4km trail from Emma’s Dell or another 4km trek starting at Sam Read’s Bookshop in the village and ending at Dove Cottage.
The app is now available on the App Store and Google Play. Read all the details here.
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