Loving the Lake District (plus 2 books to transport you there)

4th July 2015

Just 2 days in the Lake District (books in hand, naturally) and I wanted to share a couple of hidden gems that make this beautiful area of England such an idyllic and magical place for many people.

The Gardens at Levens Hall, Cumbria

The first stop was Levens Hall, a small historic building from the seventeenth century tucked away in the Southern Lakes. The big attraction are the the delightful, compact gardens, laid out in the 1690s, and still retaining many of the original features. I was bowled over by some of the box and yew topiary sculptures that rise like monoliths from the earth (and look out for the little elephant tucked away). Imagine having to prune and shape them on a regular basis, the gardeners must be fully occupied year round! The house, too, is a gem, with leather wallpaper and ornate ceilings – all lots of attributes that make a small stately home, well stately. The family clearly lives here, there are some very personal touches and some great family photos to pour over.

The wet view, Glenridding

From there we headed to Staveley, the home of the Hawkshead Brewery – this is a newish complex where several businesses have come together to serve not only the local community but also the many hikers who head off into the hills. A 6 mile round walk over Potter Tarn (and here are the details via Where2Walk) and back to Staveley (yes, a quick refreshing beer is a great reward). Then on to Patterdale where the heavens opened – but then the Lake District is very green and there is a reason for that!

Ambleside beckoned and there it was time for a cinema visit at Zeffirellis who also run Fellinis, a vegetarian restaurant offering pretty innovative food. And if you can’t find enough to do, you can always read books by the log burning hearth, as the rain thunders down and the clouds scud past over head.

And in terms of reading material, what did we take? Two small books to evoke the atmosphere of the Lakes beyond the window…

Dances with Daffodils by Matthew Connolly, a book set in the early 19th Century that transports the reader to a bygone era, rich in history and tradition and of course it is the era of Wordsworth. There is a lot of information about dry stone walling, which was only too relevant to us, as we hit a dislodged stone on the road (a common occurrence said the garage, the sheep hop over the walls and knock the stones to the ground) and ended up waiting for rescue on the Kirkstone Pass.

Our second choice Mackerel The Travelling Cat by Katharine and Maurice George was a memoir of the intrepid feline adventures of plucky Mackerel the cat, who accompanied his owners on many fell walks! Charming and short.

Potter Tarn

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Tina for the TripFiction Team

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