Fell Foot

On Sunday, as we started our journey home, the sun appeared. Fortunately we weren't hurrying anywhere and were able to enjoy it at the National Trust's Fell Foot Park.

A grand Victorian house once stood on the site but that was demolished years ago. Boathouses and their remains still survive at the water's edge though - and one has even been turned into a lovely, and unusual cafe.

There are water activities on offer here but we contented ourselves with a downhill walk to the cafe, and a back uphill one to the car park. It wasn't a long walk as yet again some of the paths were wet and muddy after the recent (and not so recent) rain.

It's a pleasant spot though, to just amble by the waterside and watch boats and canoes going past.

Another place that I'd like to visit again, hopefully in drier weather.

 

Wray Castle

Wray Castle, on a promontory overlooking Lake Winderemere, looks like it's stood there since the middle ages.

But, from foundations to battlements, it's a fake, built in the mid-1800s as a countryside retreat by a wealthy Liverpool doctor and his wife, and now owned by the National Trust.

Other Lakeland houses of the time were comparatively modest villas but Margaret Dawson inherited a huge fortune from her father, and the couple could indulge their every whim. The castle is designed to look as if it has stood there forever, and had changes made as fashions changed. There are even mock ruins suggesting demolished outer defences in the grounds! 

After the Dawsons died, the property passed to a distant relative who leased the castle to summer visitors, among them the family of Beatrix Potter. Inside the castle there's currently an exhibition of photographs taken by Mr Pottter on holidays around the Lake District - some informal family groups, some of landscape. I was quite surprised at them as I must admit that, based on the film Miss Potter starring Renee Zellweger, I'd thought of him as a rather dull businessman with no interest in arts of any kind. 

Inside, is a gothic re-imagining of how a castle should look with tiled floors and fireplaces, and ornate windows to frame the view.

Unfortunately the grounds were too soaked for walking other than along the well maintained paths of the arboretum, so it's one of those places I'd love to return to in better weather.

For this time, though, distant views of snow-topped hills had to suffice.

 

A Wet Weekend in the Lake District

There's always a certain riskiness about the weather when you decide to book a UK break in winter (or maybe tbh any time of year) and we unfortunately picked a wet weekend to head to the Lake District.

We still had a good time, pottering about between the deluges, dodging into cafes as the rain came again, playing board games back at the AirBnB when it didn't stop. There was snow on the mountain tops, and on Sunday the sun came out 

The first day, the wettest and coldest, we didn't do much; a short walk round Ambleside, looking at the (many, many) outdoorsy shops, and a lovely lunch at Dodd's restaurant. I'd hoped to visit Grasmere in the afternoon, but torrential rain put me off the idea. 

The next morning was cold and overcast with snow on the hills and rain threatening again, so we headed to Windermere Jetty Museum - not for the museum itself but for its cafe with huge picture windows and a magnificent view of the lake and boats by. It's definitely worth a stop here;  good food, wonderful views and, that most remarkable of things in the Lake District, free parking. 

After an early lunch the weather stayed dry for a little while as we wandered round the grounds and admired the views - there's smaller scale lake where model boats are sailed.

Onwards then, back through Ambleside and round the northern end of Lake Windermere, to Wray Castle, a fascinating National Trust property built in the mid-1800s as a second home!

Of course, our visit involved a brief stop at the cafe - a rather unusual one by NT standards.

The rain held off for a short walk round the grounds though we were advised that the longer walks were too muddy to attempt. 

Eventually, on Sunday as we headed home, the sun came out.

 Fortunately we had time to visit a couple of places before heading back down the motorway. First, Fell Foot park at the southern tip of Lake Windermere - for a short walk and brunch in a converted boathouse - then Sizergh Castle - to visit the gardens and take a longer walk round the surrounding estate, interrupted by lunch. More about Fell Foot and  Sizergh  . 

Despite the rain we had a really enjoyable time, which goes to prove that weather isn't everything.  

 

Lake District - day 3; heading home Sizergh Castle

Heading away from the Lake District, we still had time for one more stop - Sizergh Castle, not far from Kendall, and almost en-route for the M6. It shouldn't have taken more than 20 minutes to get there - but roadworks held us up, making it nearly lunchtime when we arrived! 

Fortunately, while the car park and cafe were busy, once we'd paid to enter the grounds the crowd thinned noticeably. To be honest I felt the gardens were a bit disorganised, - a rock garden here, a stumpery there, a small vegetable garden, a huge orchard - as if various elements had been added without a thought for the overall design.

The orchard was lovely though and we possibly caught it at its best with all the trees in flower.

On the far side of the castle, looking east, sloping lawns surround the mirror pond and would have been a lovely place to sit in the sunshine ... but... this side faces a busy 'A' road, and the noise from it is dreadful. Not a place to relax at all, sadly.

What certainly appealed to me was its convenient 'just off the M6' situation. It's an ideal alternative to motorway services style breaks in a journey, and if time permits there are short (couple of mile) walks from the cafe, so I might be back.

 

Lake District - day 2; Tarn Hows

We ended up spending so long at Holker Hall that my plans for the rest of the day had to be revised. It was now early evening and too late in the day for either a long walk or any attraction with 'opening times'. We'd vaguely had an intention of visiting Tarn Hows though, and this was still do-able. 

This is a place we discovered accidentally on our first visit to the Lake District, over 40 years ago. I'm not sure how we stumbled upon it as the roads are narrow and twisty, and not really the sort you'd explore on a whim. I wonder if, rather oddly, it was better signposted back then when there were fewer holiday-makers in the area. What I hadn't realised back then is that, like Glencoe lochan in Scotland, this is a man-made landscape rather than natural.

The place itself has certainly changed in forty years. Instead of the rough footpath we'd discovered before there's now a wide firm path circling the tarn - it didn't seem either as flat or as short as our AirBnB hosts had described it as though, especially after a day spent mainly on my feet.

There's also been damage to the trees. Some, I've read, have been felled due to disease, but some, with their roots waving in the air, had definitely suffered in the high winds of early spring. (There were warnings about fallen trees and ongoing work to clear them at Grizedale too, but we didn't see so many there)

Maybe as well, early evening, with the sun already setting behind the mountains, wasn't the best time to visit. With the sun shining and the water reflecting blue sky, it would have looked quite different, but as it was, it seemed a somewhat dreary spot.

 

Lake District - day 2; Holker Hall gardens

I was going to put my 'day 2' adventures together as I did 'day 1' but we spent so much of the day at Holker Hall that it deserves its own post.

I only heard of Holker Hall recently, through an article in the RHS magazine, and was so taken by the photos and description that I decided we HAD to include it in our Lakeland trip. I suppose it's not actually in the Lakes area as such, but out on one of the southern peninsulas near Grange Over Sands. It was close enough to easily visit from out base, though satnav tried to misdirect us.

The Hall itself looked fascinating but my interest was mainly in the garden, so we wandered round to the front of the house and the formal beds filled with simple yet stunning displays of tulips and late narcissi ...

... then onward to a wilder meadow area studded with bluebells and camassias, and with a labyrinth (which, yes, I had to walk) with views out over the parkland ...

... then to a tree-lined avenue with carpets of bluebells and wild garlic - and the odd tulip.

As we tend to start any day rather late, and I was finding far more to explore than I'd expected, we decided now was the time to head back to the cafe and re-fuel before further exercise. We both went for the venison burgers which were delicious.  

Then back to the gardens - through the formal areas again but heading out of them in a different direction, through rhododendrons to a cascade which fed a hidden fountain.

Then onward in a sweeping arc, through more rhododendrons, and old trees with bluebell-studded grass around their roots, up to the higher points of the grounds ... 

 ... before dropping down to a sunken garden with tulips, honesty, and a romantic summer house covered in magnolia blossom.. This was a really special place - the formal lay-out of the beds contrasting with the natural feel of the planting, and on a summer day I suspect a real sun-trap.

As closing time approached, we headed past Neptune sitting at the head of the cascade, back to the formal gardens, and on to the cafe.

 For once this was a cafe with the sensible notion of staying open for a while after the gardens had closed. Too many don't. Some even close earlier! It's a mistake in my opinion. When I've spent all day walking I'm in the mood for cake, and a cup of tea, but mainly cake, and I'm sure many other visitors feel the same. As with lunch, the cake was excellent - good-sized slices of blueberry sponge with cream and coconut topping. To be honest, if you're in the area Holker Hall is worth a visit for the food alone! I'll be going back sometime to see the gardens again in another season (and maybe just a little something from the cafe)