The Lake Monster at Windermere, Cumbria

Windermere is a town of approximately 2,300 inhabitants within the Lake District National Park in the county of Cumbria, in north-west England. Windermere town center is half a mile from Lake Windermere, the largest natural freshwater lake in England. Lake Windermere has been a rural summer and holiday area since the mid-19th century, when a branch line gave city people from central England access to the beauty of the area.

The City of Windermere does not touch Lake Windermere. But it has grown alongside the lakeside town of Bowness-on-Windermere. The strange combined city retains two distinct urban centers. Windermere railway station continues to operate today.

While there are many cultural attractions in the Wingemere area, none can match the beauty of the natural surroundings. The Cumbrian Mountains surround the lake basin, at the center of which is the ten and a half mile long Ribbon Lake: long, narrow and deep. Ribbon lakes were formed during the last ice age and are canyons with a river at each end. A glacier would have carved a glacial channel through a seam of soft rock, creating a canyon surrounded by the harder rock of the mountains. Boats from Bowness Docks sail around the lake. There are 18 islands on the lake, the largest being 40 acres and privately owned. Two other towns are along the lake shoe, Ambleside and Lakeside. Sailing from one to the other is a great way to spend a summer day.

Since the 1950s there have been isolated reports of something strange at Lake Windermere. The story, documented by the Fortean Zoology Center, was not widely known until 2006, when a man and his wife reported seeing something large swimming about 100 feet from shore. This focused local attention on the lake and later in the year a photographer named Linden Adams took some photos that were picked up by wire services and the cable news network. Pictures have never been proven non-authentic.