The waves are deep gold in the sunset light as we paddle across Coniston Water towards Wild Cat Island. Officially known as Peel Island, this is where the children camp in Arthur Ransome’s Swallows and Amazons. The canoe glides between the rocks towards the secret harbor with its pebbly beach, and we, like children, climb excitedly through the bronze-leaved oaks and tall pines to explore the openings at the top of the cliff.
This morning I took several trains and buses to get to Coniston in the Lake District, each journey more beautiful than the last. Tomorrow I will take a boat to visit Brantwood, once the home of Victorian writer and artist John Ruskin. Ruskin, an advocate of art and nature and one of the first observers of the damage done to the environment by human activities, may not have approved of all my transportation choices. He loved boats but saw the railways as part of the “mania of greed” of industrialization and complained, with characteristic paternalism, of “the foolish hordes of modern tourists who allow themselves to be emptied at Windermere like coals from a sack”… Ruskin Writing before the cars flooded the land, he wrote that “a He suggests renting a “sunbed and a pony” for the day.
Today’s sustainable ways to explore the region include year-round boat and bus networks. Frequently flooded in summer, Cumbria is emptier in winter; This is one of the many reasons why it’s a great time of year to visit. Less crowded and with spectacular colors, the lakes and dramatic cloudscapes are spine-tinglingly beautiful. Tonight, I embrace the long nights with a canoe trip in the dark sky. It begins in the fading light of the afternoon and works its way from Peel Island along the lake’s eastern shore, skirting the edge of forested coves to shelter from the evening breeze as night settles over the peaceful waters.
Road to Adventure also offers full-day canoeing with bushcraft and winter ghyll challenges for £52. The company’s managers, Al and Heather Wolfenden, show us how to light a Kelly kettle for hot drinks, and we roast marshmallows over the embers as stars and planets twinkle overhead: zigzagging Cassiopeia, the great square of Pegasus, and shooting stars. As we paddle across the lake, a tawny owl hoots and Jupiter rises huge and bright from the dark, rugged horizon.
The canoe rendezvous point, located five miles south of Coniston, proved a bit difficult to reach without a car. However, Ease E Ride delivers e-bikes for £55 a day to people who rent them for a few days or longer. Mike Turner and Phil Latthem recently launched the company, with bikes available at Arnside railway station and elsewhere. The bikes are equipped with lights and come with a fluorescent robe. “The experience of cycling after dark in winter can be an adventure in itself,” says Phil. “The views feel different and there are different smells at night.”
E-bikes are useful on Coniston’s steep lanes. I’m staying at the cozy, slate-walled Sun Cottage at the top of the village, one of around 100 properties owned by Coppermines Lakes Cottages. Philip Johnston began restoring abandoned mine buildings in a valley near Coniston in the early 1980s. A nearby reserve purchased in 2018 is being naturally rewilded. Willow, birch and alder trees are sprouting among meadowsweet and bluebells, helping to reduce the danger of floods.
The cottage has dramatic views from Herdwick’s grazing fields to the lake, and star-gazing skylights in the attic bedroom. But as one Australian guest wrote in the guestbook, this is “the nonsense of the journey back from the pub”. With copper pots hanging from 16th-century beams and a cheerful fire-lit atmosphere, 10 minutes away, through steep, quiet streets, Sun is my new spot serving pints of Elterwater Gold and exceptional home-cooked food.
The lakes, which are less crowded and have magnificent colors in winter, and the impressive cloud views are so beautiful that they will give you goosebumps.
The next morning I go down to the pier and catch the Coniston Departure to Ruskin’s house. Along the way there are mountain views over misty golden waters and tales of Donald Campbell’s record-breaking seaplane. Book online for 15% off (singles from £5.25). For those arriving by boat, Brantwood costs £1 less (open Wednesday to Sunday in winter; £14/free for children and adults).
Stepping off the ferry at Brantwood and climbing past a lichen-covered orchard is a suitably inspiring climax to this journey by train, bus and boat. There are huge views from the 100 hectares (250 acres) of steep gardens, where streams flow through ferns. The interior of the house is rich with original furniture and shelves made of crystal rocks; its walls are covered with patterns based on Ruskin’s designs and are filled with drawings and watercolours. This is a place with a personality that, like the minerals in its collection, reveals the different sides of this contradictory figure: radical and reactionary, inconsistent but effective.
At Brantwood’s old inn, I stop for lunch with a view at the creative Terrace café. Chef Joe Bragg has transformed simple things like toast into generous, characterful dishes. There’s a creative, meat-free menu featuring large, vibrant plates of homemade pickled vegetables and homemade chutney.
Coniston’s many options for local walks and cycling excursions include a short walk into the Coppermines Valley, past waterfalls and a restored waterwheel; a bike path to Cathedral Cave; or a five-hour circular climb up the Old Man of Coniston. I opt for a lakeside walk from the traffic-free Torver, where the Coniston Launch stands on a floating dock among the trees. I walk through bright beeches bending low over sunny water, alongside flocks of mallards, tufted ducks and chestnut-headed mergansers.
It’s raining on my last morning. The 505 bus from Coniston to Kendal passes through some of Cumbria’s most beautiful scenery: steep hillsides, mossy forests and misty silver lakes, extra atmospheric in the rain. This picturesque hour-long tour, like all the buses I caught this week, costs just £2 as part of an extended bus fare cap plan until the end of 2024. I decide to take a scenic route via Sizergh Castle. Grab a free hot drink at the café when you arrive by bus. I catch the 555 bus from Kendal (the
Eight centuries of eclectic cultivation at Sizergh have created a rich tapestry of intertwined gardens bright with fiery foliage that cheers up winter afternoons
Eight centuries of eclectic planting and landscaping at Sizergh have created a rich tapestry of intertwined gardens and ornamental ponds, bright with fiery foliage that cheers up the winter afternoon. Ocher vines, red ivy, amber hornbeams and crimson maples wave their bright last leaves above carpets of stars. A lush kitchen garden full of rainbow chard bushes continues through a stunning rockery, a fern-filled thicket and a medieval bank warehouse with a gunpowder-related display (gardens £5.50/£2.75 for adults/children , nationaltrust.org.uk).
In 2022, National Trust visitors traveled more than 3 billion miles to reach properties across the UK. Dan Taylor, the charity’s general manager for south-east Cumbria and Morecambe Bay, is one of those trying to reduce this figure through a variety of proactive plans. As he points to the solar panels on the roof of the visitor center and the mice in the gift shop carved from Sizergh’s grove trees, he tells me about plans to improve signage, pedestrianized roads for people arriving on foot and more.
Millions of people flock to the Lake District from the main road, and many don’t stop to enjoy these quiet streets and this relatively undiscovered region
Dan Taylor, National Trust
Partnerships with organizations such as Good Journey, which promote car-free holiday travel, and a range of incentives (Seaton Delaval in Northumberland has a wheel of fortune with possible prizes including free entry) have begun to change travel patterns. Sizergh is also a hub for Ease E Ride cycling and the castle is right on the epic Walney to Wear coast-to-coast cycle route. “Millions of people flock to the Lake District from the main road,” says Dan, “with not many breaks to enjoy these quiet roads and this relatively unexplored region.”
Ruskin says something similar when he complains that train passengers “go first and necessarily miss two-thirds” of the Cumbrian landscape. It continues: “The lake view really begins south at Lancaster, where the Cumberland hills are visible over Morecambe Bay…” As the train accelerates south, I plan another trip through the nature reserves at Arnside and Silverdale. We passed over a brief coastal overlook and the River Lune.
Some transportation provided Avanti West Coast (Further singles Glasgow Central to Oxenholme £11.40and from Euston about £32. Accomodation: Coppermines Lakes Cabins (Cottages from £340.40 for four nights). More information Visit lakedistrict.com