Lake District Gems | a blog about the Lakes
A blog exploring the Lake District's hidden gems and best-kept secrets
With Father’s Day just around the corner, you might well be looking for places to enjoy a leisurely day out in Lake District, so in this post I thought I would put together a few ideas especially for dads! I’ve thrown in a couple of events, as well as recommendations for local attractions. Fingers crossed […]
I always love hearing which are your favourite Lake District Gems, and it was thanks to the recommendations of two blog readers that I recently visited somewhere new to me: Allan Bank in Grasmere. Allan Bank is a relatively recent addition to the National Trust’s visitor offerings in the Lake District, and was opened to […]
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: […]
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 […]
Recently I wrote about historic Ambleside, and how you could get to know this charming little market town by following the Ambleside Heritage Trail. As I mentioned though, the history of Ambleside dates back much further than the buildings you will see in town, and begins with the Romans at a site you can still […]
If stopping off in Ambleside for only a short space of time, it could be easy to dismiss the town as a rather large collection of outdoor shops, with little else to offer. According to one local shopkeeper I spoke to on a recent wander around town, this is the impression that some visitors to […]
Have you ever wondered why the recently opened Arts Bar and Grill in Bowness-on-Windermere was previously a restaurant with the name The Spinnery? It turns out there’s an interesting piece of local history behind the name. Blackwell, The Arts and Crafts House, just outside Bowness-on-Windermere, is currently running an exhibition about historic figure and talented […]
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 […]
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 […]
Occasionally I come across an image in my photo library and think, ‘that would make a good picture for a quiz! I wonder how many people would know where it was taken…’. So following this line of thought, here are 12 photos I’ve taken on my gem-hunting travels, some of which have appeared on the […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Recently I wrote about my rediscovery of the Coniston area after not having visited for some years. I enjoyed the scenery from on board the National Trust’s Steam Yacht Gondola so much that I returned just two days later to visit another of Coniston’s local gems, Brantwood. Brantwood is a house and 250-acre fellside estate […]
In my opinion, one of the best ways to enjoy the outstanding scenery around Coniston is from Coniston Water itself, so if you’re looking for a unique, relaxing (and dry) way to do this, a trip on board the National Trust’s Steam Yacht Gondola won’t disappoint! It was with just seconds to spare that I […]
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.
Claife Viewing Station, on the western shore of Windermere, has been on my gem-hunting list for some time now. The remains of this historic viewing station were recently restored by the National Trust, and last weekend I finally got to see it for myself. According to the National Trust, Claife Viewing Station dates back to […]
Today is 150 years to the day since the much celebrated children’s author Beatrix Potter was born, and to celebrate, a short film has been created to imagine how she would have spent the day. The video, which is six minutes long, has been created by a group of local film makers and photographers, led […]
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 […]
Last night I went to see the preview of a new arts event taking place at Brockhole near Windermere. It’s called ‘Flight’, and explores our fascination with flying, and a side to the First World War we don’t often talk about: the loss of life in the Royal Flying Corps, also known as the ‘Suicide […]