Growing up in England, I never really appreciated how many beautiful places there are to visit in this country. However, since getting a car, I’ve been able to venture out of Surrey and see some incredible parts of England, with one of them being the Lake District.
I went on holiday with my boyfriend and his family to Keswick in the Lake District, which took around 6/7 hours to get to by car. We stayed at Swan House, which is a stunning 5* cottage surrounded by mountains, over looking Bassenthwaite Lake. If you’re planning a trip here, I’d definitely recommend checking out Keswick Cottages where we found this place – it’s so picturesque and peaceful being away from the hustle and bustle of the towns.
Here’s a few things we did on our little Lake District getaway (P.S. the photos REALLY don’t do it justice).
BOWDER STONE AND ASHNESS BRIDGE
Bowder Stone is basically a massive rock that had fallen off a mountain and unexpectedly landed on the ground balanced on its side. Since then, a ladder has been placed alongside the rock so you can climb up to the top. It wasn’t that spectacular to see, but it was definitely interesting.
Ashness Bridge is an old stone-built bridge on the road to Watendlath, and has a beautiful waterfall running through it. It was about a 10 minute walk from the car park to the bridge (but it was all up a steep hill), however the parking was free which is rare in the Lake District!
BARF
This is the mountain right behind Swan House where we stayed. On one of the nights, we spontaneously went for a walk and ended up climbing up the majority of the mountain (we didn’t get to the very top as the sun was setting and we didn’t want to get stuck). We actually took the “benign” route, however it was pretty damn difficult – we had to climb across a waterfall at one point. Nonetheless the views from the top were incredible, probably even more so if you get to the peak, so if you’re looking for quite a short but extraneous climb, Barf is the one.
CASTLERIGG STONE CIRCLE
The name describes it all – a circle full of stones. It’s a historical landmark in the Lake District and you get incredible panoramic views of the Hewellyn mountains.
KESWICK
We spent quite a lot of time here as it was the closest town to our cottage, so we managed to see everything Keswick had to offer. There are loads of cute cafes and shops to browse – my favourite was Ye Olde Friars, a chocolate shop (of course). There are a few museums that we went to, including Puzzling Place and Derwent Pencil Museum. In my opinion, the pencil museum was rather boring, but Keswick was the international hub for pencil making so we couldn’t not go! Puzzling Place was an interactive optical illusions museum which was so much fun – only £4 to go! We also went to the Saturday market where locals sell food, clothing, arts and crafts, and much more, which was a fun way to spend the morning.
DERWENT WATER
This is the large lake right next to Keswick, which was really beautiful. We didn’t walk round the whole lake as it takes about 6 hours to complete, but we did walk to a little view point called Friars Crag, only a 15 minute walk from Keswick town.
BUTTERMERE
Buttermere is a very small town about a half an hour drive from Keswick where we stayed, and when I say very small, I mean it has 2 pubs/restaurants, a couple of farms, and a massive lake. In comparison to some of the lakes in the national park, like Windermere, this lake was considered tame, but for us Southerners it was a very long walk – it took over 2 hours to walk around. The views were unreal as we were in the depth of a valley, and there are many waterfalls to admire on route, so I’d definitely recommend coming here.
WHINLATTER PASS
We accidentally ended up on this route on the way to Buttermere and it genuinely looked like we were in New Zealand. The journey itself was quite scary as the road was very narrow, very twisty-turny, AND on the edge of a cliff side, but you get the most incredible views of green mountains and waterfalls.
WILDLIFE PARK
This was such a fun little day out. We saw so many cool animals like meerkats, red pandas, and birds of prey, and you can buy animal food to feed the goats, sheep and alpacas!
ULLSWATER
This is the second largest body of water in the Lake District so we only walked round a tiny part of it, however we saw some pretty amazing sights. We parked up at Glenridding – a cute little town with a couple of pubs, cafes and gift shops – and walked around the lake to Aira Force waterfall. It was a bit of a trek to get up to the top of the waterfall but the views were so worth it. On the way back to Glenridding we jumped on one of the steamer boats across the lake (£6.40 one way) and surprise surprise, the views were incredible – I’d definitely recommend going on a boat trip here.
Laura’s Travels 