It is England’s topmost landscape, crammed with majestic fells, darkling
crags, limpid lakes and other such travel hyperbole. Surely there is no
conceivable way you can escape the tourist throng there? Actually, you can —
but to find the loveliest backwaters, you need to consult the locals...
MARGARET FORSTER
The Carlisle-born novelist wrote her latest book, Keeping the
World Away, and 30 others, at her home in Loweswater
“The mountain I never tire of is Low Fell: not very low at all, and the
perfect ridge walk — just 45 minutes to the top, then the whole of the
northern Lakes at your feet, and views all the way to the Solway Firth. It’s
grassy underfoot, completely wild, and yours alone, even on a bank holiday.
“My favourite bit of hidden Cumbria, though, is Wetheral in the Eden Valley,
where my dad took us on mystery bus tours as children. It’s so lush and
pastoral, nothing like Lakeland, and it has a vast village green and a
magnificent red sandstone bridge vaulting across the river. I’d recommend a
weekend at the Crown Hotel there: old-fashioned in the nicest kind of way.”
Details: climb Low Fell on the track west from Thackthwaite —
two miles each way. The Crown at Wetheral (01228 561888, www.crownhotelwetheral.co.uk)
has doubles from £130, B&B.
KIM WILDE
The green-fingered pop princess has family in Keswick, and she potted
a gold medal at last year’s Chelsea Flower Show for her “Cumbrian Garden”
“I first went to the Newlands Valley when I met my husband, Hal, 10 years ago,
but I think its magic was already part of me. Perhaps I remembered it from
Beatrix Potter’s illustrations in childhood — Mrs Tiggy-winkle and Squirrel
Nutkin are set on Catbells, and it’s my favourite fell: not rugged, as you’d
expect, but sensual, like a reclining woman with shapely hips and breasts.
“We love taking a picnic down to Derwent Water with our children: we walk
across this secret meadow to the shore and spend all day there, making toy
boats out of feathers and driftwood, watching the launches slide up and down
the lake, and carving our initials on the fallen tree where Hal made his den
as a boy. The water is black as ink, and cold, but we still take jelly shoes
and swim. Afterwards, we might walk to the Swinside Inn for a bite: they do
some really chunky bread and cheese.”
Details: Kim’s favourite swimming spot is on Kitchen Bay. You
can walk there from the car park at Gutherscale, just south of the Swinside
Inn (017687 78253); or chug there on the launch from Keswick (www.keswick-launch.co.uk,
£6.50).
MARK WEIR
A helicopter pilot and restaurateur, Mark single- handedly revived
Cumbria’s last slate mine at Honister from dereliction in 1997
“As a farmer’s son in Borrowdale, I got to camp and ride motorbikes and swim
in the lakes. That’s why I like Rookin House, which gives families from all
over a chance to sample that way of life.
“It’s a proper family farm, and when they turn out the beasts after the
winter, they convert the mucky old barn into a brilliant, skiddy go-karting
track. You can pile around the fields on quad bikes, and there’s an
equestrian centre. It’s in a wicked location, right under Blencathra.
“The other place our children love is Muncaster Castle. It’s got silvery
turrets, a resident ghost, and owl displays in the grounds. But what’s
special is that it feels like a living house. You even get to tour the
bedroom where the owners still sleep.”
Details: Rookin House Adventure Centre is at Troutbeck
(017684 83561, www.rookinhouse.co.uk);
activity prices vary. Muncaster Castle (01229 717614, www.muncaster.co.uk)
costs £6.50; £9 with house tour.
ALEX BRODIE
In 2002, the veteran BBC foreign correspondent gave up presenting the Today
programme and Newshour to start his own micro-brewery in Hawkshead
“When I was a reporter, travelling the world’s trouble spots, the car ferry
across Windermere was my drawbridge — I crossed into Sawrey, the most
delectable corner of Lakeland, and shut the door on anxieties behind me.
“My wife and I have been walking from Far Sawrey to the gate on Claife Heights
for 30 years, and it’s where we first dared to dream about living here. For
10 months of the year I now have that gate to myself. It’s an easy ascent,
but all the great peaks of Cumbria line up at the top: the Langdale Pikes,
Coniston Old Man, Sca Fell... I’m mad to let on about it, really.
“When you get down again, you’ve a fantastic pub crawl: the Sawrey Hotel, a
proper locals’ place; the Tower Bank Arms in Near Sawrey, still looking just
as it did in Jemima Puddle-Duck; and the Kings Arms in Hawkshead, the first
pub ever to stock my beer. Cheers.”
Details: the Windermere Ferry goes from Bowness (01228
606744). The Sawrey Hotel (015394 43425), the Tower Bank Arms (015394 36334)
and the Kings Arms (015394 36372) all have bedrooms.
JOHN CUNLIFFE
John created Britain’s best-loved literary hero of the late 20th
century at his terraced house in Kendal
“When the BBC commissioned Postman Pat, they sent a production team to visit
the places that inspired Greendale. I took them up Longsleddale — not very
far east of Windermere, but utterly deserted. Only one problem: it’s so
unspoilt, it has no village and no lake, so we had to “move” Grasmere into
the valley for the programme.
“The essential walk is across the crags from Sadgill to the hamlet of
Kentmere, and you can circle back past Skeggles Water, a remote tarn where
I’ve seen ospreys diving for fish — breathtaking. I can’t guarantee that,
mind.
“I don’t eat meat, so dining out in the Lakes used to mean nut roast or dodgy
lasagne. Then we found the Lancrigg Hotel, in an idyllic spot in Easedale.
It’s the classic country house: only half a mile from the crush of Grasmere,
but no traffic noise, just birdsong and waterfalls. Every bedroom is
different, and the menu is full of character: my wife says their beetroot
and fennel soup could convert her to vegetarianism.”
Details: for walking in Longsleddale, take OS Explorer map
OL7 and your compass. Dinner, B&B at the Lancrigg Hotel (015394 35317, www.lancrigg.co.uk)
starts from £70pp.
ERIC ROBSON
The chairman of Radio 4’s Gardeners’ Question Time
has kept a smallholding in Wasdale for 15 years
“I’ve got the biggest rockery in the world: the Wasdale Screes, 1,000ft high
and two miles long. It’s this extraordinary wall of shifting rock along the
valley, constantly changing shape as the light hits from the west: blue,
orange, mauve. You expect landscapes to stand still, but this is like a
fractured mirror.
“The time to visit is for the Shepherds’ Meet in October. It’s a remnant of
the days when farmers would walk down to exchange stray animals that had
been gathered into the wrong valley. Much ale was taken, then they’d stumble
back to their farms.
“The ale still goes down, and there are sheep shows, Cumberland wrestling and
a hound trail where you can watch the dogs race across the amphitheatre of
fells.”
Details: this year’s Meet is on October 14; www.wasdaleweb.co.uk.
Eric recommends the Wasdale Head Inn (019467 26229, www.wasdale.com);
B&B doubles from £108.
Interviews by Vincent Crump
