'I wandered lonely as a cloud'...... In Dora's Field.

Dora's Field is a beautiful place to spend some time and this is the best time of year to be there. Just off the A591 in Rydal and just behind the church and Rydal Mount, Dora's Field is full of daffodils. This small patch of open woodland was once owned by William Wordsworth. When he lived at Rydal Mount he was a tenant of the Le Fleming family of Rydal Hall. Wordsworth heard that Lady Anne Le Fleming intended to give the tenancy of Rydal Mount to a relative, which would have meant the Wordsworth family were evicted.

In 1826 Wordsworth purchased some land adjoining Rydal Mount from the Backhouse family and had plans prepared to build a house there. It is thought that he never actually intended to build there at all, but to use the threat of a newly built house directly in the view of Rydal Mount, as a bargaining chip. Whatever his intentions really were, he successfully managed to keep the tenancy of Rydal Hall.  The threat of eviction was withdrawn and the poet laureate's family continued to live at Rydal Mount.

With the necessity to build now gone, Wordsworth gave the field to his beloved daughter Dora. When Dora tragically died in 1849, William's wife Sarah planted it with hundreds of daffodils in Dora's memory.

In 1935 the Wordsworths gifted Dora's field to the National Trust, to be maintained in perpetuity for the public to enjoy. There are seats, strategically placed to best enjoy the views, to rest, or for mere contemplation.

Looking down Dora's Field towards the road.

March 13th, seems to be the optimum time this year.

'A host of golden daffodils'

The carefully maintained paths wind there way around the field.

St Mary's church Rydal, as seen from Dora's Field. Wordsworth helped Lady Le Fleming to chose a suitable site in what was an orchard. The church was opened on Christmas Day in 1824.