Rough Guide Staycations Lake District (Travel Guide eBook)

Rough Guides

• Publisher: Rough Guides
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781789197242
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Travel

Inspirational and informative pocket guide, shining a spotlight on the best of holidaying at home in the UK through clearly laid-out walking and driving itineraries.Explore the best of the Lake District with this unique Rough Guide Staycations Lake District, packed full of insider information and stunning images. From making sure you don't miss out on must-see attractions like Derwent Water, Lake Windermere and Tarn Hows to discovering hidden gems, including visiting Wordsworth's home at Dove Cottage, wondering at Castlerigg's ancient stone circle, and taking a ride on an historic steamer on Ullswater, the easy-to-follow, ready-made walking and driving routes will save you time, help you plan, and enhance your staycation in the Lake District. This book has been fully updated post-COVID-19. The Rough Guide Staycations to the Lake District covers: Kendal to Windermere, Ullswater and Kirkstone Pass, Coniston and Hawkshead, Keswick to Grasmere, Borrowdale and Buttermere, around Skiddaw, The Western Lakes and The Southwest.Inside this travel guide you will find: INFORMATION FOR EVERY TYPE OF TRAVELLER
Provides practical information for every kind of trip to the Lake District, from discovering local history in Kendal to getting out in nature in Langdale Valley and finding family-friendly activities in Keswick. 8 READY TO FOLLOW WALKS AND TOURS
Features over 8 detailed easy to follow walking tour itineraries, including Borrowdale and Buttermere, around Skiddaw. LOCAL HIGHLIGHTS
Carefully curated list of the Lake District's unmissable sights and unique attractions for those who want to make the most of their stay. RAINY DAY RECOMMENDATIONS
Uncover plenty of options, whatever the weather throws at you like exploring the Cumberland Pencil Museum in Keswick. INSIDER RECOMMENDATIONS
Tips on how to beat the crowds, save time and money and find the best local spots for walking, boating, climbing or fell running.
Find a curated list of where to stay and what to do, from active pursuits to themed trips. HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL INSIGHTS
Learn more about the Lake District's rich history with fascinating cultural insights throughout. PRACTICAL TRAVEL TIPS
From transport to hours of operation, we've got you covered whatever you choose to see and do around the Lake District including getting there, getting around by public transport, accommodation, detailed food and drink highlights, and sports and activities in the region. METICULOUS MAPPING
Practical full-colour maps, with clearly numbered sights relating to major points of interest in the main text. Find your way around The Western Lakes, Duddon Valley and many more locations in the Lake District without needing to go online.

Tour 1: Kendal to Windermere

This 30-mile (48km) journey takes you through the pretty landscape of the southern Lake District, from the town of Kendal to Windermere on the shores of its largest lake

Highlights

Abbot Hall Art Gallery

Museum of Lakeland Life & Industry

Kendal Museum

Kentmere

Bowness Bay and the ‘Steamers’

The World of Beatrix Potter

Blackwell

The Lyth Valley

Southeast Lakeland lacks the high drama of Central Lakeland, but its quieter hills offer many rewards, and though this tour could be done in a day, there is plenty of scope for walking and staying longer.

Kendal, the market centre for the region, is known as the ‘auld grey town’ not because it’s dull and boring, but because of the colour of limestone with which it is built. A lively place with hiking gear shops and Vacancy signs on many of its front windows, this is the main centre of the southern Lakes and provides a place from which to start your exploration.

A tranquil contrast with urban Kendal can be found in picturesque Kentmere. This valley is a cul-de-sac but hill-walkers can carry on up Kentmere Pike (2,397ft/730m) and then on to the long, straight ridge of High Street (2,719ft/829m), which once carried the Roman road between the forts at Ambleside and Penrith.

The destination on this route is Windermere, England’s largest lake. The old steamers (now running on diesel) ply the lake and take the visitor to within sight of the rock turrets of the Langdale Pikes. Bowness Bay, which the children’s author Arthur Ransome (for more information, click here) referred to as Rio, has a fascinating waterfront and the country’s finest collection of steamboats. The return to Kendal is through the Lyth Valley, back in limestone country. The limestone gives a special flavour to the fruit of a profusion of damson trees, which are white with blossom in May and laden with fruit in September and October.

Kendal Castle, home of the Parrs.

iStock

Kendal Mint Cake – not actually a cake.

William Shaw/Apa Publications

Kendal to Windermere

Kendal

Kendal 1 [map] lies just outside the Lake District National Park. It is easily reached by train, changing at Oxenholme (4 mins away) on the main line between Glasgow and London.

The settlement dates back to the 8th century and owed its later prosperity to the wool trade, which transformed the town. By the 18th century there were around 150 ‘yards’, little alleys often containing workshops and named after the owners of the houses that stood at their end. Some good examples remain, with plaques explaining their history, and are worth exploring. Notice, too, in Stricklandgate a stone-built house with a protruding sign of a hog with bristles, originally made when the premises were used by a maker of brushes.

The town was the birthplace of Henry VIII’s sixth and last wife, Catherine Parr. Her family occupied Kendal Castle, now a ruin on a small hill overlooking the town.

Catherine’s prayer book is on display, and can be seen on request, in the Town Hall, which was rebuilt on a grand scale with a clock tower in 1825. An outdoor market is still held every Wednesday and Saturday around the old Market Place; there is also an indoor market here (Mon–Sat).

Kendal is perhaps best known outside the Lake District as the home of mint cake, first made here in 1869. This bar of mint-flavoured sugar, widely used by walkers and climbers for an energy boost, was famously used on the first successful ascent of Everest in 1953.

Kendal, a lively commercial centre, is a good base for exploring the southern Lakes.

William Shaw/Apa Publications

Riverside and museums

A broad, traffic-free riverside path west of the ­River Kent leads to the Abbot Hall Art Gallery (www.abbothall.org.uk; currently closed for redevelopment), Nov–Feb 10.30am–4pm). This distinguished 18th-century building has an outstanding collection of fine art. The works are shown on a rotation basis and include pieces by John Ruskin, painters from the St Ives School, and a fine collection of canvases by the 18th -century portrait painter George Romney, who had his first studio in Kendal, and who died here. There is a particularly interesting display of landscape watercolours from the 18th and 19th centuries, when the Romantic landscape of the region captured the imagination of artists Edward Lear and J.M.W. Turner, whose watercolour of Windermere can be seen here. The gallery also holds temporary exhibitions. It is due to reopen in 2022.

Abbot Hall Art Gallery has many watercolours by 18th- and 19th-century artists inspired by the Lakes, including J.M.W. Turner.

Cumbria Photo/Tony West

Fields of Kendal Green

Kendal’s motto – Pannus mihi pani, ‘wool is my bread’ – reflects its former importance as a wool-making town. William Camden, writing in 1582, saw the ‘tenter fields’, where cloth was stretched out to dry after being dyed, and compared the sight with ‘vine orchards in Spain’. Kendal Green was the most famous colour, made by mixing woad (blue) with dyer’s yellow broom. One of the customers is said to have been Robin H...

Table of contents

• 10 Things not to miss
• Introduction to: The Lake District
• Food and Drink
• Tour 1: Kendal to Windermere
• Tour 2: Ullswater and Kirkstone Pass
• Feature: Literary Lakes
• Tour 3: Coniston and Hawkshead
• Tour 4: Keswick to Grasmere
• Feature: Festivals
• Tour 5: Borrowdale and Buttermere
• Tour 6: Around Skiddaw
• Feature: Wildlife
• Tour 7: The Western Lakes
• Tour 8: The Southwest
• Active Pursuits
• Themed Holidays
• Practical Information
• Accommodation