A gem-hunter’s guide to Cartmel

The pretty village of Cartmel lies just south of the Lake District and around two miles north-west of the coastal town of Grange-over-Sands, near to the Furness Peninsula. If you love quaint old buildings then you’ll adore the centre of the village, and there are a number of things you might like to see and…

A Christmas celebration in Windermere

The weeks leading up to Christmas are crammed with festive celebrations across the Lake District, including markets, fairs, Santa boat and train rides, charity events, and Christmas light switch ons in several towns and villages. But so far in 2017, I’ve been so busy with work that I haven’t made it to any of them!…

An afternoon visit to Hawkshead

I was sitting inside working on what was forecast to be one of the last warm, sunny days of the year, when I suddenly realised it. There wasn’t one thing I was doing that couldn’t wait until the cloudy days at the weekend! So although time was getting tight, I headed out for a short…