AN invitation for people to celebrate the creation of national park extension areas by seeing in the new dawn from a popular landmark has been thrown out by the Friends of the Lake District.

The landscape charity campaigned long and hard to see the Lake District and the Yorkshire Dales National Parks extended.

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And on the historic day on which the new areas will officially become part of the national parks - Monday August 1 - representatives from the charity will be on Scout Scar, overlooking the Lyth Valley, to see in the new dawn.

On that day the Lakes will expand to include an area from Birkbeck Fells Common to Whinfell Common to the east. It will include an area from Helsington Barrows to Sizergh Fell and part of the Lyth Valley. The Dales will include part of the Orton Fells, the northern Howgill Fells, Wild Boar Fell and Mallerstang to the north. To the west it will include Barbon, Middleton, Casterton and Leck Fells, and part of Firbank Fell.

Douglas Chalmers, chief executive of Friends of the Lake District, said: "This is a historic day and a very rare one – national park status is the highest level of legal protection our stunning landscapes can have and this hasn’t happened in Cumbria since the 1950s, when some very beautiful land was left out of the national park boundaries and unprotected."

Breakfast butties will be provided for anyone wishing to join the dawn celebrations – around 5.30am on Monday August 1. People are asked to pre-register attendance so that catering can be arranged. Register online at https://www.friendsofthelakedistrict.org.uk/Event/dawn-over-the-lake-district-national-park or by contacting Alison Lax on 01539 720788 or email alison-lax@fld.org.uk.