Borrowdale May 2024
Monday 29th April – Friday 3rd May 2024.
I find it quite difficult to believe that our last visit to the Lake District and in particular Borrowdale was back in the Winter of 2018, where has that time gone?
It is a two and a half hour drive from home, straight up the A1 motorway, stopping at Scotch Corner to let the dogs stretch their legs and for us to have a cup of tea and bite to eat before continuing along the A66 to Keswick. Today, much of the A66 road has been turned into a dual carriageway, which makes for a much easier drive. Fortunately, the weather was kind and we had excellent views passing over the Pennines and bypassing the villages of Brough and Appleby before reaching the M6 junction and the Lake District fells. Unfortunately, as we approached Keswick it started to rain and it continued to rain for the remainder of the day. It was just after 2pm when we arrived at our hotel situated in the heart of the Borrowdale valley. After unpacking the car and getting settled into our room, I took the dogs out for a walk along the River Derwent to the shores of Derwent Water, I was pleased I had taken my wellies with me as some of the fields had some pretty deep gulleys in them, which were filling with water. Meg and Gracie thought it was great as they ran through the puddles getting absolutely soaking wet through! After a good hour or so we made our way back to the hotel to get dried of and cleaned up.
The following morning (Tuesday) we headed back up towards Keswick, stopping at the National Trust ‘Great Wood car park’. From here we walked across the main road, through the woods lining the shoreline of Derwent water to find ‘the Centenary Stone’. Back in 2018 we made a similar journey to find the Stone to no avail as it was submerged under the water. ‘The Centenary Stone’ is a large boulder from the Borrowdale volcanic family, which was sawn in half with each face carved by the artist Peter Randall Page, into ten folded wriggles, it was created in 1995 to celebrate the founding of the National Trust 100 years earlier. It lies in Calfclose Bay just off Broomhill Point. Meg & Gracie enjoyed a very pleasant thirty minutes swimming in the lake whilst we walked to the stone, the water level in the lake was much lower today than our previous visit and we soon found the stone basked in sunlight on the water’s edge. On leaving the Centenary Stone, we headed back to the car and made the short journey into Keswick, parking in the lakeside car park. It is a short walk across the car park to the ornamental gardens of Hope Park. Originally built in 1925, the land was used for grazing the railway coach horses which brought train passengers from Keswick station to the hotels in the town. Sir Percy Hope owned the land and began developing it into a miniature golf course. It was opened on 27th May 1927, since then the park has become an important recreational area for both the residents and the increasing number of visitors to Keswick. The ornamental garden was once the private garden of Lady Hope. It was the wish of Sir Percy and Lady Hope that the inhabitants of Keswick and visitors to the town would continue to enjoy these recreational facilities.
One of the main reasons for visiting Hope Park was for Jenny to have a look at ‘Max’s Bench’. Probably one of the most photographed benches in the Lake District. Max the Miracle Dog was a Springer Spaniel that gained worldwide fame when videos of his walks in the Lake District were posted on Social media. His owner Kerry Irving is from Keswick and credits Max with saving his life after he was left in agonising pain and depression after a car accident. Max became an online star, capturing the hearts of hundreds of thousands of people. His videos brought joy to people around the world, he has now been immortalized as a bronze statue sitting on a slate bench in Hope Park in his hometown of Keswick. Max’s legacy will continue to inspire for many years to come, and he will be remembered as a true hero and legend. Sadly, Max passed away at the age of 14 years and eight months. Today, Kerry along with Paddy, Harry and Tally have continue to raise money for the Great North Air Ambulance Service through all their charity walks and activities. It is a lovely bench and memorial for Max, he now has a shiny nose due to everybody giving it a rub as they sit next to him for a photograph.
After leaving Max in the park, we headed towards the theatre by the lake and on to the water’s edge and the boat landings. It was turning in to a bright, dry. and sunny day, no sign of the rain we had yesterday afternoon, though the wind was quite fresh and the water too choppy to head out onto the water. Instead, we continued walking along the shoreline, to follow the footpath to Friars Crag and Strandshag Bay. It is just a pleasant and leisurely ten-minute walk with beautiful views looking South into the Jaws of Borrowdale and over on the righthand side of the lake good views of Catbells and Causey Pike. Suitably refreshed after our walk to the Crag we headed back to the car for the short journey to the hotel.
The following day, (Wednesday) before breakfast I took Meg and Gracie for a good walk into the heart of the Manesty woods, we crossed the Chinese Bridge and along the boardwalk to the shores of the lake, stopping for a few moments to watch some rock climbers scaling the rock faces of Sheperd’s Crag on the opposite side of the valley, as well as admiring the views of Castle Crag deeper in the jaws of the valley.
After breakfast we had a pleasant drive along the A591 admiring the pleasant views of Thirlmere lake on our right and Helvellyn on our left, passing the small village of Grasmere on our right before arriving in Ambleside, as ever this small town was busy with visitors, we turned right towards Skelwith Bridge, then south to the tiny village of Coniston. It was a warm, bright, and sunny morning so our first stop was coffee and cake, we found a lovely café where we could sit outside and admire the view of ‘Coniston Old Man’, before heading around the corner to have a look around the Ruskin Museum. The museum is a must visit place for anyone interested in the philosopher John Ruskin. It also gives an excellent and informative timeline about the history of the village through the ages, as well as explaining how Coniston became an important mining and quarrying district. In another wing of the museum, opened in 2008 is a section dedicated to Donald Campbells powerboat Bluebird, whose wreckage was lifted from the bottom of Coniston Water in 2001. The hydroplane finally went on display at the museum on the 9th March 2024 and is well worth a visit.
After leaving the museum we headed back to Grasmere for a very pleasant brunch at the ‘Grasmere Gather’ shop and restaurant. Suitably refreshed we headed across the main road to have a look around St Oswald’s church where William Wordsworth and his family are buried. Grasmere is always a quaint, busy village with visitors visiting the graves of the Wordsworth family as well as shopping in the gingerbread shop. We had a steady drive back to the hotel and as it was still a bright, warm, and sunny late afternoon, (23C) we took Meg & Gracie for another walk along the shores of the river Derwent and a paddle in the lake.
Thursday morning was a little bit gloomy and overcast with the sun finally breaking through by mid-morning, we decided to stay reasonably close to the hotel today. We called into Keswick for a coffee before heading out to visit the ‘Castlerigg Stone Circle’. Thirty-eight chunks of Borrowdale volcanic stone, the largest almost eight feet tall, form a circle 100 feet in diameter. The stones probably have an astronomical or timekeeping purpose when they were erected some four or five thousand years ago. There are some stunning views from the stone circle including the massif of Blencathra to the right, Skiddaw to the left and the Helvellyn massif down to the south, after walking around the Stone Circle a couple of times we headed a little further up the road to have a look around the Threlkeld mining museum. A century ago, Threlkeld was a busy, dirty industrial centre for lead and copper mining in the valley, granite was also quarried from the hillside for road and railway making. Our tour guide gave us a very informative and fascinating explanation on the quarrying that took place not only within the Threlkeld area but the entire Lake District National Park, with exhibits on show from around the area. Outside the museum are a wide selection of machinery and equipment used to extract the minerals from the countryside.
On leaving the museum we headed back into Keswick, and down the Borrowdale valley to the National trust car park at the Bowder Stone, situated about a mile from the tiny village of Grange. It is a pleasant half mile walk from the car park to reach the 1,870 tonne Bowder Stone. The stone looks precariously balanced, it can be climbed using the fixed metalled ladder with handrail, though noting the patches of chalk dust on the sides of the boulder the keen climbers still prefer to climb it the conventional way. How this huge lump of rock arrived in its current home is very much a mystery, some say it fell from the crags above whilst others believe it was deposited here during the last Ice Age.
The following morning Friday was leaving day, so after a very pleasant hotel breakfast we packed the car, said our goodbyes and headed for home.
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