← All articles · United Kingdom · 7 May 2012

Lake District

A May 2012 week in the Lake District: out on Windermere by motorboat, a heritage railway, Beatrix Potter's world in Bowness, and the stones at Castlerigg.

In May 2012 we pointed the car north and gave the Lake District the best part of a week. It answered with slate villages, woodland waterfalls, a lake with its own navy of hire boats, and weather that changed its mind roughly hourly.

Bowness and about

A Victorian stone and slate guesthouse with gabled porch and garden wall, Dileep arriving at the gate with a backpack — Checking in: stone walls, slate roof, roses on the porch. The Lakes build even their guesthouses out of the scenery.

A life-size model of a fox in a tweed jacket reading The Woodland Gazette beside Jemima Puddle-Duck in her bonnet at the World of Beatrix Potter — At the World of Beatrix Potter in Bowness, the fox reads his paper while Jemima Puddle-Duck fails to smell trouble. Some plots never age.

A Lakeland stone cottage with wisteria climbing over the porch, spring flowers along the fence and a gravel drive beside it — A roadside cottage in full wisteria season. We slowed down for a lot of houses that week.

Inga in a blue jacket on a woodland path beside a small waterfall tumbling over mossy rocks between spring green trees — A beck doing its thing in the spring woods. The soundtrack of the whole national park is falling water.

Inga leaning on a wooden gate under trees at the edge of the lake, the water bright behind her — Gate found, lake admired, walk officially paused.

A day on Windermere

Inga boarding a maroon and cream heritage railway carriage through its wooden door — All aboard the maroon and cream: a heritage carriage with proper slam doors and windows you lean out of.

View over the bow of a small boat down the length of Windermere, fells rising along both shores under a blue evening sky — Windermere from the water, fells queueing up on both sides. England's biggest lake, and on a May evening it felt like ours.

Inga in a red life jacket and sunglasses lounging in the cockpit of a small self-drive motorboat on Windermere — Captain's rest. The hire boat came with a wheel, a top speed best described as polite, and this seating arrangement.

Inga sitting on a mossy stone wall by a fellside lane while two mountain bikers ride past behind her — Wall-sitting on a fellside lane while the mountain bikers earn their descent.

North to the stones

Inga and Dileep standing together in a lakeside field, forested fells rising across the water behind them — Both of us, one lake, several thousand sheep just out of frame.

Inga and Dileep close together high above a broad lake, wooded shores and misty fells stretching into the distance — Up at a viewpoint above the water, wind in everything. Worth every step and both our hairstyles.

National Trust information board for Castlerigg Stone Circle with a bronze relief map of the stones on a wooden lectern — Castlerigg Stone Circle, raised around 4,500 years ago by the sign's reckoning. The bronze map lets you read the circle with your fingers.

On the way south we traded one national park for another and spent a day underground and uphill in the Peak District.