THE Olympic torch relay will incorporate an overnight stop in Bowness-on-Windermere, it was announced today.

The official route details are still to be released but the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games has scheduled a stop in Bowness on June 21, 2012.

South Lakeland District Council Leader, Coun Brendan Jameson, said: “We are so pleased that LOCOG has chosen South Lakeland to be part of this iconic, important journey and national event.

"To be a key location on the Torch Relay route and to host an evening celebration event to enable us to showcase South Lakeland to the rest of the UK and the world is just brilliant news.”

Chief executive Lawrence Conway added: "This is a tremendous occasion for our local community to be involved in this historic countdown to the start of the London 2012 Games.

"It will also give us a unique opportunity to display the beauty and diversity of our area, and all that it has to offer, across the world.”

More than 8,000 torchbearers will carry the torch across the UK before the Olympic Games open on July 23, 2012.

Sebastian Coe, chair of LOCOG, said: "The Olympic flame will shine a light right across every nation and region of the UK and showcase the very best of who we are and where we live.

"The first locations on the route confirmed today give a flavour of the reach the Olympic Torch Relay will have around the UK and how extensive the opportunity for starting to celebrate the London 2012 Olympic Games will be."

In addition to the first 74 locations confirmed on the route today, many other cities, towns, villages and places of outstanding natural beauty, sports venues and community hubs will be announced in a second, more detailed route announcement later this year that will confirm the many other places the Olympic flame will visit each day.

The Olympic flame will travel for approximately 12 hours each day, concluding on 66 of the 70 days with an exciting early evening celebration event that will enable thousands of people each evening to enjoy a variety of entertainment and shows staged by LOCOG and the three Presenting Partners with the support of the host Local Authority.

Each celebration event will differ with locally programmed content on the stage which will add to the celebratory atmosphere.

Many thousands more people are expected to celebrate along the route each day.