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Keswick Attractions

Nearby Attractions

Events

Getting About

Keswick Weather

Keswick Webcams

Literary Connections

Miscellaneous Links

 

Keswick Attractions

Apart from the obvious attractions of the lakes and fells and the usual facilities for eating, drinking and shopping (including numerous specialist shops for walking, climbing and skiing equipment) Keswick has these facilities and attractions -

The theatre by the lake  on the shores of Derwentwater

The Alhambra cinema in St Johns Street. (Programme on the theatre website)

Keswick Spa - swimming pool with water slide and wave machine 

Keswick Museum and Art Gallery in Station Road has many interesting exhibits including the musical stones. (Apr-Oct)

Keswick Pencil Museum (Pencils were invented in the Keswick area with the discovery of plumbago in Borrowdale)

The Cars of the Stars Motor Museum

Take a motor launch around Derwentwater (hourly service) or hire a rowing boat or cabin cruiser.

More Keswick information at www.keswick.org

Nearby Attractions

Watch the Ospreys fishing in Bassenthwaite Lake (May - August)

Trotters world of animals, Bassenthwaite. A wildlife experience with demonstrations

Honister slate mine. Tour underground at England's last working slate mine

The Heaton Cooper Studio, Grasmere. An exhibition of paintings and sculpture by four generations of the Heaton Cooper Family

Dove Cottage and the Wordsworth Museum, Grasmere. Wordsworth's  Birthplace in Cockermouth and his home at Rydal Mount are also open to the public.

Hill Top, Near Sawrey. The 17th century farmhouse where Beatrix Potter bred herdwicks and wrote childrens stories. Now owned by the National Trust.

The Rheged Centre on A66 near Penrith. Seven giant movie screens, 'Discovering Cumbria' show, The National Mountaineering Exhibition.

Off-road driving  in South Lakeland

 

Events

 

Keswick Film Festival 8-10 Feb 2008

Words by the Water 29th February to 9th March 2008

Keswick Film Festival 10th to 13th April 2008

Keswick Jazz Festival 7th to 11th May
                (pre-festival events 4th-6th May)

Keswick Mountain Festival   14-18 May 2008

Keswick Beer Festival  6th & 7th June 2008

Cockermouth Carnival  (  June 2008)

Keswick Christian Convention  (three weeks from mid July)

Cockermouth Agricultural Show   2nd August

Bassenthwaite Regatta  1st week August

Keswick Agricultural Show   (August Bank Holiday Monday)

Borrowdale Shepherds Meet 21st September 2008

Keswick Traditional Christmas Fayre 7th December 2008

 

 

 

Literary Connections

(under construction)

Wordsworth's Lakeland origins are well known but the other Lakes Poets Samuel Taylor Coleridge and  Robert Southey also had strong connections with Keswick

Hugh Walpole's 'Rogue Herries' was set in the picturesque  hamlet of Watendlath.

Several of the children's novels of Arthur Ransome were set on and around Coniston Water and Winderemere. However 'Swallows and Amazons' was filmed on Derwentwater.

Ken Russell filmed parts of 'Tommy' on Walla Crag and parts of The 'Seven Veils' in the Naddle Valley.

 

www.wayswithwords.co.uk

 

 

Getting about

Those of you without cars can come by rail to Penrith or Windermere. At Windermere Rail Station catch the 555 bus outside to Keswick Get off at the "Castle Lane Road End" stop and walk back down the hill. From Penrith Rail Station catch the X4/X5 bus outside towards Workington alighting at Keswick. 

The golakes website has an  interactive map showing bus  routes and trains - also long distance walks and cycle routes - but not timetables.

Bus Timetables can be found here. The 555 Lakeslink service passes the farm on its way from Lancaster through Keswick to Carlisle . The "Dale Bottom" stop is half a mile down the hill from Low Nest. The more convenient "Castle Lane Road End" stop is a quarter mile up the hill but is not listed on the timetable.

The Mountain Goat company operates  tours by mini-bus

Derwentwater, Ullswater, Windermere  and Coniston,  all  have motor launches with regular services 

Bicycles can be hired in Keswick. 

Keswick is within walking distance of the farm (about 25 minutes).

Webcams

View of Skiddaw from George Fishers

Red Squirrel Webcam

 

More Links

Dates of Easter

Archaeology of the Naddle Valley and Castlerigg Stone Circle

Cumberland & Westmorland Antiquarian Society

In and Around Keswick 125 years ago