Keswick Cumbria.

Your find Keswick in northwest England at the heart of the Lake District situated on the edge of the ‘queen of the lakes’ Derwent Water. The area offers some good, but very busy, walking country; in fact you can’t walk any distance without meeting other people - unlike North of the Border. The market town it self was exceptional busy because at the end of July and the beginning of August Keswick hosts a Christian Conference and I was reliably informed that this brings in an extra 15000 visitors. The town is also famous for the amount of walking equipment shops and it is said that if you can’t get a pair of walking boots/shoes in Keswick to satisfy, you can’t get them anywhere.

 

Our well organised base.... 

.... on the edge of ....

.... Derwent Water.

The very well organised Keswick Camping and Caravan Club Site was our base for our three nights stay. The site had got over its flooding and was back up and running but some of the shops and houses in the town were still to have their renovations finished including The Pencil Museum which was not due to be opened until the end of July which was a shame because it was one of the places I particularly wanted to visit after seeing it in Ben Wheatley’s Sightseers (2012).

 

The Dandelion Cafe.

Nichol End Marina.

After looking around the town and lunch by the Loch we walked around the eastern edge of Derwent Water as far as Nichol End Marina via coffee at the Dandelion Café, the banks of which form a beautiful garden down to the waters.  

 

Theatre by the Lake.

Tours of Derwent water.

The view from Friar's Crag.

On the Sunday we attempted the western side of the Loch. Here you go past the Theatre by the Lake that must be one of the most picturesque settings for any theatre.  Each year this modern looking building stages up to nine productions of its own on its two stages. Presentations that have won it much critical acclaim. It also plays host to literature, jazz, film and mountain festivals. Moving on past the boathouse and landing stages where visitors can get trips around Derwent Water, you get some splendid views of the countryside surrounding the Loch especially from Friar’s Crag. After lunch at Strandshag Bay the circular walk was continued back to the bustle of Keswick for ice cream and a sit in the town centre to watch the world go by.

Ravenglass Lake District National Park.

The only coastal village in the Lake Districts National Park, Ravenglass is reputed to date back to the second century when it was an important navel base for the Romans. Although it's probably changed since Roman times it certainly hasn't changed a lot in the last few hundred years! Quaint would go some way to describe it with a generally neat row of small two storey cottages each side of its only main street. With only one shop, a rather rundown Post Office with a friendly owner whose cat sits on the counter and with little stock on the shelves visitors are advised to shop before they arrive for a lengthy stay but it's still worth a visit and it is the only place locally that sells newspapers!

 

View down the High Street.

Community Hall.

and the Post Office.

Ravenglass and Eskdale Steam Railway.

One of the main tourist attractions of this small coastal town is its miniature railway that runs a seven-mile stretch of narrow gauge rail track through some spectacular Lake District countryside to Eskdale and the Dalegarth Station where you embark in the shadow of Scafell Pike. La'al Ratty, as the railway is known, has a very long history and some of it can be sampled at the railway museum that adjoins Ravenglass's main line station where regular trains run from Barrow in Furness in the south to Carlisle in the north. Also more information about the steam railways history can be obtained from their web site www.ravenglass-railway.co.uk.

Up to Dalgarth Station....

....a turn around....

....and back to Ravenglass.

Once you break your return journey at Dalegarth, the round trip takes about 2 hours in all; you have a chance to explore locally on foot.  Boot Village is only a short walk and boasts a pub/restaurant and an ice cream shop but don't miss a chance to explore Eskdale Mill full of artifacts, photographs and lots of information. Visitors can actually see the water wheel in action. Go around the back of the building and see the beautiful watercourse. For further information go to www.eskdalemill.co.uk

Boot Village.

Inside Eskdale Mill....

The wheel and its....

....and its water feed.

On leaving the village follow the footpath signs to St Catherine’s Church and then across the rather precarious stepping-stones to ford the River Esk and follow the signs for Stanley Gill and the Dalegarth Falls. The walk will take a couple of hours and follows a fast flowing river up an ever-narrowing ravine with a precipitous drop. Could be quite dangerous for young children and people unsteady on their feet but the final result is a close view of the falls surrounded by its ‘Lord of the Rings’ type forest. Back to the railway station for coffee and cake and the small gauge rail journey back to Ravenglass in an open carriage accompanied by the unique smell of steam pouring out of the miniature engine.

Dalgarth Falls.

A very strange English eccentricity took place at the station the following morning: Border Style Morris Dancing! A weird group of people perform this ‘ritual’ which is based in West Cumbria and call themselves ‘The Two Headed Sheep’. Difficult to describe their routine but it involved a dance dressed in a costume and banging sticks together, but they seemed to enjoy themselves!

The Romans.

Ravenglass was located at the western extremity of the Roman frontier and as I have said there's not a lot left of the Romans - except that is for the remains of a Roman bathhouse. Ravenglass's Roman occupation lasted for over 300 years, so I suppose it's only right if your away from home for that amount of time you may require a good scrub once in a while and considering there were 500 solders in the garrison it certainly had to be a large bath! It is one of the largest remaining Roman structures in England. Approximately a miles walk from the remains is Muncaster Castle and its gardens.

Muncaster Castle.

Rumoured to be haunted, Muncaster Castle is the ancestral home of the Pennington family who have lived there 800 years and who still live in part of the castle with the rest set a side for public gaze - at a price of course. But for £13:50 you get a fair bit for your money not only a look around the castles 'elegant rooms, historical furnishings and superb works of art' but also the grounds which displays plants, shrubs and trees from all over the world and did have the largest collection of rhododendrons in Europe (I wonder who has the biggest collection now?). Well that's not all, included in the ticket money is a visit to the hawk and owl centre, a display of various birds of pray and the 4 o’clock feeding of a flock of herons who come to the castle for a feed every day, eight birds were spotted during the feed. Which raises the age-old question how do birds tell the time?