Places to visit, attractions, heritage and things of interest in Cumbria, England.
The walk to Aira Force, a small but beautifully formed waterfall alongside Ullswater in England’s Lake District, is a favourite. It’s great if you’re not feeling like struggling up a serious fell, or walking too far; so you certainly don’t need to be Sherpa Tenzing to get to it. You do need decent footwear, working […]
The bleak ruins of medieval Brough Castle perch on the western edge of Church Brough, a peaceful collection of attractive, solid, old dwellings huddled round a small square with St Michael’s church in the background. The village of Brough is divided by the busy A66. The larger portion, Market Brough to the north of the
Brough Castle, Cumbria Read More »
It is hard to wrap your brain round, but the small Cumbrian village of Eamont Bridge was once an international frontier crossing. Well – kind of. At first glance, it seems a nondescript sort of place, stretching along the A6 in typically linear northern fashion, so that both ends of the village could be blocked
The importance of Eamont Bridge Read More »
I’ll never forget my first experience of Great Gable. It was during a geography field trip to the English Lakes, I was callow youth of 17 and, up to that point, the landscape opening up all around had belonged on biscuit tin lids and boxes of fudge. Walking up Great Gable was one of the
Missing Great Gable Read More »
There are several reasons why you may want to visit Kirkby Lonsdale. Not least, because it’s a fine old Cumbrian market town, with a lovely church, St Mary’s, and, beyond that, Ruskin’s View – a panorama allegedly described by the Victorian polymath, without a trace of hyperbole, as “One of the loveliest views in England,
Kirkby Lonsdale’s Devil’s Bridge – and the bikers who live there Read More »
Holker Hall (say ‘Hoaker’ or ‘Hooker’) is one of those places you could easily miss if you didn’t already know about it – which now you do. To those in the know, Holker is a renowned grand estate, house and home; but it is stuck on the fringe of south Cumbria in north-west England, well away from
The key to Keld Chapel is hanging by the front door of the house opposite. It’s that kind of place, if you know what I mean. Keld is a tiny Cumbrian hamlet, just outside the straggling village of Shap and a little south east of long abandoned Shap Abbey. Travellers on the M6 will be
English literature resonates with killer opening lines. Some have become embedded in our culture to the extent that they help define the people we are: “It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” “Last night I dreamt I went to
From garden to plate – a helping of Peter Rabbit Read More »
The first thing that struck me about Furness Abbey was how red it is. The second thing was the girl in the visitor centre and the third was drainage; but we’ll come onto all that later. For the moment, all you need to know is that the great red sandstone abbey of Furness was once
The great abbey of Furness Read More »
The men of the 4th Cohort of Dalmatians were a long way from home. They were undoubtedly cold and Hardknott Fort, which the Romans probably knew as Mediobogdum, must have seemed like the end of the world. Certainly, situated in the mountainous northern region of the most northerly province of Imperial Rome, it was one
The road to Mediobogdum Read More »
Kendal, nestling conveniently on the edge of the English Lake District, is a famous town. This, after all, is the place where mint cake was discovered, Katherine Parr had a castle and Alfred Wainwright was Borough Treasurer; but these nuggets of distinction pale into insignificance when you realise that Postman Pat was born there. Indeed,
Postman Pat’s post office Read More »
Castlerigg Stone Circle is probably the best-known prehistoric stone circle in North West England, perched on the slopes to the east of Keswick inside the Lake District National Park. We will probably never know what our ancestors were doing, building these things. Perhaps if you visit Castlerigg when there are few other people about, the
Castlerigg Stone Circle Read More »
Sooner or later, if you potter about the elderly houses and castles of old England, particularly in the north, you’ll come across Lady Anne Clifford – though hopefully only by reputation, because she died more than 300 years ago. A couple of miles from the Cumbrian market town of Penrith, on the south side of
The Countess Pillar Read More »
I’m gazing up through the empty keep, where long-dead feet once paced across floors that have themselves long-since vanished, rotted away. Here’s Brougham Castle, scenically sitting on the south bank of the River Eamont a couple of miles outside Penrith, just off the A66. Someone should write a song about that road… get your kicks,
Two thousand years at Brougham Castle Read More »
