Wish We Were Here: The Lake District
It’s about this time of year that the rallying cry goes up. Dig out the maps, hunt down the thermals and thermos, find the rucksacks and compass, stock up on KitKats, polish up those boots: we are off to the Lakes.
Ever since the children were tiny, and we carried them in backpacks, we have scrambled over the fells and crags of the Lake District in all weathers and at all times of the year, although Easter is my favourite because the light and the colours are so spectacular. We have stayed in Cockermouth in the north, trekked across those earthly giants, Helvellyn and Skiddaw, walked to the desolate Wastwater in the West and taken the Ravensdale and Eskdale narrow gauge to the disused iron ore mines. We have ambled around Buttermere where the skyline silhouettes so beautifully onto the lake when the sun shines, walked the gentler slopes around Wordsworth’s Grasmere, strolled alongside the streams of Seathwaite in Borrowdale and scaled the Langdale Pikes.
Our last trip was three years ago, when snow storms from the Beast from the East caught us close to the top of the Old Man at Coniston. But this time it was our eldest son and his snow leopard of a wife, taking it in turns to carry their nine month old daughter, who led the way down through the blizzard while we blasted out Prince’s Sometimes it Snows in April to stop the shivering. I’m not going to lie: there have been hairy escapes: climbing Scafell Pike in the thickest of fog, so thick you couldn’t see the fell falling away beside you, and with the cloud so dense there was no view from the peak. Crossing an icy Hardknott Pass by car, the steepest road in England, in yet another whiteout was another moment when we held our breath so tight we could barely talk, let alone sing.
Yet we made it. And to celebrate our descent we would head to Zefferellis in Ambleside, the most gorgeous arthouse cinema with five screens and a live jazz cafe, or to one of the town’s many great Chinese restaurants. They say that Tuscany is God’s own country. But for me Cumbria is our very own earthly paradise and right on our doorstep.
Things to do:
Explore Grizedale Forest
Grizedale Forest, at the heart of the lakes between Windermere and Coniston, is where to go if you want a rest from the fells. It’s perfect for children of all ages with a sculpture park, walking and cycling trails and now a Go Ape, as well as cafe and play area. The perfect place to make up stories of the mythological Norsemen left behind in the copper mines.
Visit Beatrix Potter’s house
We often stay at a friend’s cottage close to Tarn Hows, one of the many estates which Beatrix Potter gave to the National Trust on her death in 1943. In total, Potter bequeathed 14 farms, 4,000 acres of land and her flocks of Herdwick sheep to the National Trust and her spirit is very much alive. You can visit her Hill Top House near Hawkshead or the World of Beatrix Potter, an attraction in the centre of Bowness-On-Windermere.
Discover the work of Kurt Schwitters
What you don’t expect to find hidden away in the woodlands around Langdale is the work of Kurt Schwitters, now seen as one of the founders of the Modernist movement. Schwitters fled Nazi Germany via Norway and ended his days living in Ambleside. Here you can find the Merz Barn where he worked, and which is now owned by the Littoral Arts charity and being restored as a mini-cultural centre. When we visited there was a £250,000 painting by Damian Hirst painting hanging alone on the barn wall. And why not.
