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THE PEAK & LAKE DISTRICTSPLACES TO VISIT, PLACES TO STAY AND MUCH MUCH MORE

HOLIDAY LOCATIONSEXPLORE, EXPERIENCE AND ENJOY

Keswick Camping and Caravanning Club Site, Crow Park Road, Keswick, Cumbria, CA12 5EP

Open: 11 Feb 2016 - 02 Jan 2017

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Following a huge enhancement project completed in 2014, Keswick Museum & Art Gallery is now a dynamic and forward looking organisation run by the community for the benefit of the community as well as visitors to the area.

Keswick Museum

The building and collection was originally owned and managed by Fitz Park Trust and was established in October 1882 and opened to the public in 1898. The museum and the collection were transferred to the Keswick Museum and Art Gal-lery Trust in 1995 with Allerdale Borough Council as the sole trustee. Fitz Park Trust still continues to operate separately with Keswick Town Council as sole trustee.

The management of the Museum & Art Gallery is now in the hands of Keswick Museum & Art Gallery Management Ltd which started life as a community group in 2007 and, following a major renovation funded mainly by a grant of £1,842,455 by the Heritage Lottery Fund, it took on a 125 year lease on the property and entered into a management agreement for the collection. The organisation gained charitable status in 2014.

Castlerigg Stone Circle Keswick Cumbria CA12 5LE

Mirehouse

Mirehouse is a 17th-century house to the north of Keswick in Cumbria, at the foot of Dodd, near Bassenthwaite Lake and St Bega's Church, on the A591 road. Although still a family home it and its grounds are open to the public and in 1999 won the award for 'Best Heritage Property for Families in the UK'.

Mirehouse was built in 1666 by Charles Stanley, 8th Earl of Derby, who sold it in 1688 to his agent, Roger Greg. The Greg family and then the Storys owned the estate until 1802 when it was given by Thomas Story to John Spedding. The Spedding family have owned Mirehouse ever since.

The Speddings have enlarged the house several times, with the last major changes occurring in the 1960s, when extensive renovation work was carried out, and in the 1980s, when the ground floor and grounds were opened to the public. The grounds now include a Bee Garden, a wild flower meadow, a "poetry walk" and ad-venture playgrounds.

The Spedding family had strong links to a number of poets, including William Wordsworth, Lord Alfred Tenny-son and Robert Southey as well as Thomas Carlyle and John Constable, some of whom stayed at Mirehouse. In celebration of these poetic links, an annual Poetry competition is now held.

www.mirehouse.co.uk

Muncaster CastleDominating the River Esk, Muncaster has been of strategic importance since Roman times, and has been home to the Pen-ningtons since 1208.

The pele tower stands on Roman foundations and was extended through the ages into the Castle of today. In 1862 the fashionable architect Anthony Salvin was engaged by the fourth Lord Muncaster to rebuild the house. Salvin took the courtyard, built by the first Lord Muncaster, and converted it into the present drawing room. The pele tower at the SW end was matched by Salvin with the NW tower. He did a good job, with towers, battlements and mullioned and transomed windows.

In 1208 the land was granted to the Pennington family, and it is still their home, probably only due to the magical ‘Luck of Muncaster’, a glass drinking bowl belonging to Henry VI. He gave it to the family in 1464 declaring that as long as it re-mained intact, Penningtons would live and thrive at Muncaster.

A tour of the house may be made with audio commentary, narrated by Patrick Gordon-Duff-Pennington, the present owner, describing what can be seen in the Great Hall, the Library, the Dining Room, the Drawing Room and the Bedrooms.

Spring and early summer bring a riot of colour to the 77 acres of woodland gardens where the rhododendrons, camelliasand azaleas are at their best. Summer flowering herbaceous plants and autumn fruiting trees and shrubs will provide colour throughout the seasons. The Terrace Walk, described by John Ruskin as ‘The Gateway to Paradise’, of-fers spectacular views of the Eskdale Valley and the Lakeland fells, with their constantly changing moods. A specimen of Nothofagus obliqua is the tallest example in Britain.

In the Meadow Vole Maze you can imagine being a meadow vole, just two and a half inches tall, living in meadowland, where danger lurks at every turn. In the Meadow Vole Maze the secret world of wildlife makes a wild experience. You may meet Max Meadowvole, who will help you get home safely.

The plant centre offers the largest collection of hardy rhododendrons in the North, and a convenient mail order service is available. In the old stables area is Creeping Kate’s Kitchen, serving meals and snacks, and the Carriage Gift Shop, selling interesting and unusual gifts.

www.muncaster.co.uk

Whinlatter Forest ParkEncompassing 1200 hectares of pine, larch and spruce, Whinlatter is England's only true mountain forest, rising sharply to 790m about 5 miles from Keswick. The forest is a designated red squirrel re-serve; you can check out live video feeds from squirrel cams at the visitor centre .

It's also home to two exciting mountain-bike trails and the Go Ape tree-top assault course. You can hire bikes from Cyclewise , next to the visitor centre.

Entry to the forest is free, but you have to pay for parking. Bus 77 (four daily) runs from Keswick, or if you're driving, head west on the A66 and look out for the brown signs near Braithwaite.www.forestry.gov.uk/whinlatterIt’s also home to two exciting mountain-bike trails and the Go Ape tree-top assault course. You can hire bikes from Cyclewise , next to the visitor centre.

Entry to the forest is free, but you have to pay for parking. Bus 77 (four daily) runs from Keswick, or if you’re driving, head west on the A66 and look out for the brown signs near Braithwaite.

www.forestry.gov.uk/whinlatter

Braithwaite Fold Club Site, Glebe Road, Bowness-on-Windermere, Cumbria, LA23 3HB Phone number: 01539 442177

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Wordsworth MuseumIt was in this little cottage, at times ‘crammed edge full’ with people, in the heart of the remote Lake District, that William Wordsworth wrote some of the greatest poetry in the English language and Doro-thy kept her famous ‘Grasmere Journal’, now on display in the Museum.

William came across his first Grasmere home by chance as he and his brother John walked along this lane with his fellow poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge in late 1799. He and his sister Dorothy moved in just a few weeks later.

The cottage had once been an inn, the ‘Dove and Olive Bough’. It was now to be the Wordsworths’ home for the next eight years. In 1802 William married Mary Hutchinson and three of their five children were born here.

Step into Dove Cottage to get a sense of that time: stone floors, dark panelled rooms, glowing coal fires and the family’s own belongings. Little has changed in the house since the Wordsworths lived here.

Stroll in the Dove Cottage garden, a place of refuge, meditation and inspiration. It was, wrote Words-worth, ‘the work of our own hands’. Here they planted flowers and vegetables, watched birds and butterflies and, most importantly, read, talked and wrote poetry.

www.wordsworth.org.uk

AmblesideAlthough there has been a settlement since pre-Roman times, Ambleside is largely Victorian. A fort beside Borrans Park – named Galava – was built in Ambleside by the Romans, housing some 500 sol-diers. It was built to defend the lower fells of South Lakeland from invasion by the Picts and Scots, and to guard the road to the Roman Port at Ravenglass via Hardknott Pass. The opening of the Lake Windermere ferry terminal at Waterhead Pier in 1845 created further expan-sion. Today ferries can be taken to Bowness and Lakeside. Many well known characters have been connected with Ambleside, including William Wordsworth, Hardwicke Rawnsley, John Ruskin and Beatrix Potter. More about these people can be found in the The Armitt Museum, (opposite the main car park entrance). William Wordsworth had an office here, in Church St, as a result of his role as Collector of Stamps for Westmorland. He was elected to the post soon after his family moved to their house at Rydal Mount. St Mary’s Church, completed in 1854, was designed by Sr George Gilbert Scott in the Early English

Bakewell Camping and Caravanning Club Site, Hopping Lane, Youlgreave, Bakewell, Derbyshire, DE45 1NA Phone number: 01629 636555

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If Bakewell is your first stop within the Peak District National Park, then a visit to the town's Visitor Centre is a must. An excellent source of information and leaflets on all the sights around the Peak District National Park, you will find this Visitor Centre an excellent aid to planning your visit.

Address: Old Market Hall, Bridge Street, Bakewell

Phone: 01629 816558

Website: www.peakdistrict.gov.uk/visiting/ic/ic-bakewell

National Park Visitors Centre

All Saints ChurchMany, many English churches are very ancient indeed, and All Saints is no exception.

In fact, it is older than many because it dates largely from the 1200s, although there are traces o fits earlier 1000s (Norman) building as well, as well as changes made during the 1300s...including the spire. The original spire had to be replaced in 1840 because it had become dangerous....but the fact that it lasted more than 400 years is a testament to the skill of those 14th-century masons and builders (remember...they used wooden scaffolding!).

There is a truly lovely alabaster monument in the church, dating from the 1300s and very rare. It shows Sir Geoffrey Foljambe and his wife, Avena...and Irish woman whom, i suspect, was rather beautiful.

The font dates from the 1300s too; even though it is much worn it is the best example of a 14th century font in Derbyshire. And there are some fascinating tombs too: Sir Geoffrey Manners and his wife from the 1600s, Sir Thomas Wendesley (killed at the Battle of Shrewsbury in 1403), Sir George Vernon and his wives, from the 1500s........

The choir stalls, although beautifully-carved, mostly date from the 1800s, although they incorporate some Medieval bits and pieces (including three 15th-century misericords).

For anyone who has even the slightest interest in history this is definitely a church worth exploring.

The church is normally open from around 9.00am until 4.45pm in the summer and 3.45pm in the winter.

Address: Between North Church Street and South Church Stree

Directions: The church towers over the town and is impossible to miss!

www.bakewellchurch.co.uk

This stately home is situated just 3½ miles northeast of Bakewell and is the home of the Duke of Devon-shire, having been in the family since 1549.

Chatsworth House offers plenty of opportunities for the visitor. You will find lots of small car parks in the public accessible parts of the extensive grounds and parklands. Parking near the house itself costs £3 for the day.

There are a variety of access tickets for the house, gardens, farmyard and adventure playground with dis-count offered if purchased in advance online.

The house itself has featured in a number of films and TV productions, including the 2005 production of Pride and Prejudice, it is also named within the novel as one of the estates that Elizabeth Bennet visited prior to Pemberley.

The extensive website below contains excellent information to assist in planning your visit.

Address: Chatsworth, Bakewell, Derbyshire, DE45 1PP

Directions: Follow the signs on B6012.

Phone: 01246 565300

Website: www.chatsworth.org

Chatsworth House

Haddon Hall has welcomed visitors for hundreds of years and its beauty and atmosphere never fails to enchant.

Described by Simon Jenkins in “1000 Best Houses” as “the most perfect house to survive from the middle ages”. Set in the heart of the beautiful Peak District National Park, parts of the house date from the 12th Century, sitting like a jewel in its Elizabethan terraced gardens, and overlooking the River Wye.

Film-makers flock to Haddon Hall to use it as a location. The house and grounds have played host to no less than three versions of “Jane Eyre”. Screen credits also include “Elizabeth”, “Pride & Prejudice” and “The Other Boleyn Girl” and “The Princess Bride”, the cult classic movie in which Haddon Hall becomes Prince Humperdinck’s Castle and village.

Haddon has its own romantic tale - that of Dorothy Vernon’s elopement with John Manners. Little wonder Haddon Hall is recognised as one of the most romantic houses in Britain.

www.haddonhall.co.uk

Haddon Hall

Freedhome (Academy Group)Eton Business ParkBury RoadBuryGreater ManchesterM26 2ZS

Phone 0161 725 5400Email enquiries@freedhome.co.uk