When travelling as a passenger in a car or on public transport, there are all sorts of unusual landmarks and intriguing features to be spotted around the Lakes. Here are the stories behind them.
Category: History
Explore 200 years of boating heritage at the NEW Windermere Jetty
If you’ve been following the blog for a while now, you may remember that I’ve written on a couple of occasions about a new visitor attraction due to open on the eastern shore of Windermere – the Windermere Jetty Museum of Boats, Steam and Stories. And after much anticipation, this £20 million attraction finally opens…
Explore historic Troutbeck on a self-guided walk
The peaceful and historic South Lakeland village of Troutbeck is a hidden gem bursting with character, traditional Lakeland buildings, and magnificent views – and one way to explore Troutbeck for yourself is with the help of the village’s very own ‘Discover Troutbeck Self-Guided Walk Map’. Situated along the side of Wansfell overlooking the Troutbeck valley,…
Transporting you to the past: the Lakeland Motor Museum
Situated at Backbarrow, at the southern tip of Windermere lake, the Lakeland Motor Museum is a must-see for car enthusiasts, and is equally as enjoyable for everyone else too.
A walk to Hampsfell Hospice, Grange-over-Sands
I’ve often been intrigued by photographs of Hampsfell Hospice, an imposing square stone shelter on the top of Hampsfell, above the seaside town of Grange-over-Sands, and had added it to my mental checklist of places to visit if I ever got the chance. As luck would have it, I recently spotted a guided walk to…
A historic gem in the North Lakes: Castlerigg Stone Circle
A Lake District gem I’ve been meaning to visit for ages is the Castlerigg Stone Circle near Keswick – and recently I finally ticked it off my list (albeit on a thoroughly miserable day when the sky became increasingly grey and eventually I got very wet – a complete contrast to the incredible weather we’ve…
A Victorian waterfall walk in Ambleside
There are many beautiful waterfalls across the Lake District, but few are as easy to reach as Stockghyll Force, which is just a short walk from the heart of Ambleside. Whilst some would regard the walk to Stockghyll Force as too well-known to be regarded a ‘hidden gem’, it would be so easy to miss…
A gem-hunter’s guide to Shap Abbey
If you enjoy seeing the remains of once grand historic buildings and imagining what might once have been, you’ll definitely want to stop off at Shap Abbey by the side of the River Lowther near Shap, approximately 10 miles south of Penrith. Where else would you go on a gorgeous sunny day apart from the…
Heritage Open Days 2017 in the Lake District
Heritage Open Days is an annual festival of history and culture held across England for four days every September. The event brings together over 2,500 organisations who open their doors to the public for FREE – some well-known, and some less so. In 2017, it’s taking place between Thursday 7 and Sunday 10 September (although…
10 reasons to visit Mirehouse alongside Bassenthwaite Lake
I’ve wanted to visit Mirehouse for a long time, and one beautiful sunny Saturday in July, my gem-hunting companion and I decided we’d risk the busy weekend traffic (which curiously turned out to be almost non-existent that day) and head north to Bassenthwaite. We thoroughly enjoyed our look around Mirehouse, but the house itself forms…
A visit to Derwent Island House
Always on the lookout for something a bit different to visit in the Lake District, I was intrigued to come across Derwent Island House on the National Trust’s website. This historic house, which dates in part back to the 1700s, opens to the public for just five days each year. There’s just one catch though:…
What exactly is the Baddeley Clock in Windermere?
If you’ve ever taken the drive along New Road and Lake Road between the village of Windermere and neighbouring Bowness-on-Windermere, you may have noticed a small but intriguing clock tower halfway between the two. You may even have walked past, but not stopped to take a proper look at the inscription on the front. It’s…
Record-breaking Lake District: 17 intriguing facts
Every now and again I’ll hear an interesting fact about the Lake District and think, ‘Another record belonging to the Lake District – I should collect them for a post!’ Well, having gathered a few facts now, the time has finally come, and although I’m sure I’ll have missed many more along the way, here…
A house for all seasons: Blackwell, The Arts and Crafts House
At the end of the season, a number of the Lake District’s historic houses shut for the winter, however, Blackwell, just outside Bowness-on-Windermere, is an exception that is well worth visiting at any time of year. Blackwell is a famous example of a house from the Arts and Crafts movement, and was built in 1900…
A peek behind locked doors: hard hat tours at Wray Castle
My fascination with Wray Castle started back in September this year when I visited the inside of this enormous mock-gothic Victorian house properly for the first time. It was whilst writing about Wray that I then came across its November ‘hard hat tours’ and thought what a great thing they too would be to share…
Wray Castle: The many lives of a grand Victorian estate
Wray Castle is an unusual National Trust property in that you are told not to expect to find a well-furnished, pristine historic country house on a visit here. Children will love Wray however, and outside of the school holidays, I think there is plenty of intrigue to make it a destination for people of all…
Windermere Jetty: a new Lake District gem due to open in 2017
If you’ve been visiting the Lake District for some years, you may remember the Windermere Steamboat Museum, which was situated on the eastern shore of Windermere, just outside the centre of Bowness-on-Windermere, on Rayrigg Road. I must have been really young when I last visited, but I do have a vague memory of wandering round…
A gem in the Coledale valley: Force Crag Mine
I first came across the Force Crag Mine processing mill on the National Trust website, and it looked absolutely fascinating. Situated at the head of the Coledale valley, the building can be seen from the outside at any time, but on just five dates each year volunteers from the National Trust open up the mill…
Poetic licence: Dove Cottage, the home of William Wordsworth, and a former inn
One of the Lake District’s most celebrated gems and once the home of William Wordsworth, Dove Cottage lets you discover more about the man behind the poetry.
A hidden gem within a hidden gem: The secrets of Rydal Hall
It just goes to show – however much you think you know a place, there’s always something new to be discovered! I’ve been visiting Rydal Hall in Rydal, near Grasmere, for several years now, and it’s a gem of a place that not everyone has come across. But what I didn’t realise until the beginning…