3 Best Sights in England

A spectacular 65-foot waterfall pounds under a stone bridge and through a wooded ravine to feed into Ullswater. From the parking lot it's a 10-minute walk to the falls, with more serious walks on Gowbarrow Fell and to the village of Dockray beyond. A 1¼-mile footpath allows visitors to leave their cars at Glencoyne Bay, to the south, and walk through a deer park. Bring sturdy shoes, especially in wet or icy weather, when the paths can be treacherous.

Just above Aira Force in the woods of Gowbarrow Park is the spot where, in 1802, William Wordsworth's sister, Dorothy, observed daffodils that, as she wrote, "tossed and reeled and danced and seemed as if they verily laughed with the wind that blew upon them." Two years later, Wordsworth transformed his sister's words into the famous poem "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud." Today national park wardens patrol Gowbarrow Park in season to prevent people from picking the few remaining daffodils.

If you have the time, pack a lunch and walk for 2¾ miles or so from Haworth along the "Bronte trail" across the moors to the lovely, isolated waterfall that has been renamed in honor of the sisters. It was one of their favorite haunts, which they wrote about in poems and letters, with Charlotte calling it "a perfect torrent racing over the rocks, white and beautiful!” in an 1854 diary entry.

The Upper Teesdale Valley's elemental nature shows its most volatile aspect in the sprays of England's highest waterfall, part of the Raby Castle Estate. Located 15 miles northwest of Barnard Castle—a lovely, 30-minute drive through pretty countryside and charming villages—the dramatic High Force cascade drops 69 feet into a plunge pool. From the roadside parking lot, it's a 10-minute walk through woodland to the massive rocks over which the water tumbles.