Howe Foot Holiday Cottages
Lake District Blog and Travel Guide
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A Visit to Newlands Valley
A day out in July to an area that for 300 years or so was one of Lakeland’s industrial heartlands. There’s not much evidence of that now so the Newlands Valley has become what some just call a ‘hidden gem’.
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A Walk in the Yewdale Valley
We parked up on a beautiful morning in April, Coniston Water flat calm, the sky a perfect blue. Ideal conditions for a walk into the Yewdale Valley.
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Sand, Sea and Natterjack Toads
‘Where shall we go today?’ was the big question over breakfast at Howe Foot. ‘What about Sandscale Haws? It’s right by the sea, we’ve not been before and the weather’s looking reasonable,’ came the reply.
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A Holiday at Howe Foot - Part 3
We arrived back at Dalegarth just as the steam train from Ravenglass was pulling into the station, its passengers alighting in the heart of glorious countryside, having made the seven mile journey from the coast.
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A Holiday at Howe Foot - Part 2
It was the last day of the spring break at Howe Foot and so, with the promise of fine weather, we headed north to Eskdale, ‘one of Cumberland’s delightful valleys, full of interest and beauty,’ as Arthur Mee’s book ‘The Lake Counties’ described it in the 1930s.
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A Holiday at Howe Foot - Part 1
By the time we got to Slater’s Bridge the sun had got its hat on, so we slipped the rucksacks off our shoulders, took out the sandwiches, sat down on the grass and thought of all the packhorses that would have crossed this famous stone arch down the centuries.
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Donald Campbell's Bluebird - The Homecoming
It was a date and an official announcement that many people had been looking forward to for a very long time. 'After 23 years, Bluebird K7 is returning to Coniston on Saturday, March 9, 2024,' announced the Ruskin Museum in the village five days earlier.
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Lakeland's Quieter Places - Part 2
Kentmere. Just at the end of a four hour walk in the Kentmere valley we got chatting to an elderly gentleman whom we'd spotted in his garden. It turned out that he knew Sue from Howe Foot - she spent her childhood in Kentmere and went to the same school as his children - and so what had already been a great day out just got better.
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Lakeland's Quieter Places - Part 1
If you're standing beside the 'steamer' piers at Bowness-on-Windermere on a warm, summer's day, it's easy to imagine that 18 million visitors a year come to the Lake District. But get away from the centres to which many people gravitate - Bowness, Windermere lake, Ambleside and Keswick - that statistic seems a little more difficult to believe.
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Day Trips from Howe Foot - Part 2
The wonderful thing about staying at Howe Foot - as mentioned in the last blog - is that you're spoilt for choice as to what you can see, savour and explore. In fact right on the doorstep is one little adventure that we always try to make time for, and that's a walk up towards (or to the top of) Lowick Beacon.
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Day Trips from Howe Foot - Part 1
Spoilt for choice. That's how it feels when you're staying at Howe Foot, with all the magnificent countryside and varying attractions that lie within 10/15 miles of Garden Cottage and Otley Beck Cottage. So, if you're looking for things to do, here - and in the next blog - are a few suggestions.
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Cumbria's Country Shows
New York has its Broadway and London has the West End but for showtime in Cumbria nothing beats places like Lowick, Broughton-in-Furness, Millom, Cartmel, Rusland, Ennerdale, Skelton, Appleby and Wasdale. The agricultural and country shows here are one of the county's great, unsung attractions, and I - for one - love them to bits.
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A trip to Cumbria's Damson Country
A sunny morning in April and it was an early start for a trip to Cumbria's damson country. There was a time when we could look out of our back window and see the spring blossom on a damson tree, but sadly no longer.
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Black Combe, Silecroft, Millom and a monumental artwork
'Which other fell can be ascended in carpet slippers,' asked the famous walking guide writer Alfred Wainwright of Black Combe. I'm not sure what kind of slippers AW sported but for any fell - whatever the weather - proper walking boots are certainly the best footwear.
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Great Days Out In 2022 (Part 2)
New Lakeland discoveries, glorious walks and wonderful views are some of the great 'day trip' memories of 2022, a year that started with a steepish climb in January up to Alcock Tarn above the Vale of Grasmere and ended in December with a stroll in the freezing cold beside Crummock Water and then Buttermere.
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Great Days Out In 2022 (Part 1)
New Lakeland discoveries, glorious walks and wonderful views are some of the great 'day trip' memories of 2022, a year that started with a steepish climb in January up to Alcock Tarn above the Vale of Grasmere and ended in December with a stroll in the freezing cold beside Crummock Water and then Buttermere.
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An Autumn Walk from Tilberthwaite into Little Langdale
If you're looking for a walk that combines glorious countryside, a peep into Lakeland's industrial heritage and artwork by one of Britain's best known environmental artists/sculptors, then the route from Tilberthwaite into Little Langdale pretty well fits the bill.
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Six Villages of Cumbria
About 15 miles north of Howe Foot and close to Esthwaite Water lies the small village of Hawkshead which thanks to its 17th century, white-washed properties, narrow streets, alleys and archways, 500 year old church, ancient grammar school, historic Methodist chapel and buildings full of summer floral colour...
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Great Gardens of Cumbria
Nine o'clock in the morning at Rydal Mount, not far from Rydal Water. Sixty minutes before the house and gardens open to the public, so a golden hour to savour the stillness and singular quality of the place that kept William Wordsworth here for 37 years.
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A Day in the Duddon Valley In the Western Lake District
To the Duddon Valley, a quiet, unspoilt part of Lakeland, so cherished by poet William Wordsworth that he wrote 34 sonnets about the place. In that sense you'd think there'd be more people here, but that's not the case. Walkers know about the Duddon because it's great walking territory and those who prefer their Lake District wild rather than mild seek it out as well. Otherwise it's much the same as it was 50 years ago.
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40 great reasons to visit the Lake District / Cumbria (and stay at Howe Foot)
For over 300 years travellers have come to this north west corner of England, drawn at first by the mystery and then later by the magic of its lakes and mountains. These days people come to the Lake District and the other parts of Cumbria for all sorts of reasons. Here are 40 of them…
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Greetings Cards From Lake District Travel Guide
The one thing that you can safely say about the Lake District and the rest of Cumbria is that they're certainly not short of a brilliant view. Climb any fell, walk through any valley, saunter by any shore and you'll find something to celebrate, to cherish and to take the breath away.
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To Broughton-in-Furness and Silecroft Beach
Off to the beach today - to Silecroft - because the village isn't a million miles from Howe Foot and 2021 is 'Cumbria's Year of the Coast'. On the way to the sea why not pop into the small town of Broughton-in-Furness, about nine miles to the west of Howe Foot, along the A5092 and then the A595.
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A trip on the Lakeside and Haverthwaite Steam Railway and a visit to the Lakeland Motor Museum
Although the eight mile branch line to Lakeside was closed in the 1960s, the last 3.5 miles were re-opened in 1973. That means you can take a delightful 18 minute trip through the Leven Valley on the Lakeside and Haverthwaite Railway, with trains pulled - in the main season - by steam engines (picture courtesy of Lakeside and Haverthwaite Railway).
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A Trip to Cartmel & Holker Hall
Early morning in the small, pretty village of Cartmel, about 12 miles south east of Howe Foot. There's a lovely buzz of activity around the narrow lanes as staff from Simon Rogan's Michelin starred restaurants start their working day.
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A Cruise on Coniston Water
About five miles due north of Howe Foot is Coniston Water, the nearest lake to the cottage and one made famous by its association with speed ace Donald Campbell, the great Victorian John Ruskin and the author Arthur Ransome.
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Christian at Howe Foot Cottages
I can't quite remember how we first heard about Howe Foot but I clearly recall turning off the A5092 and - for the first time - heading down a little lane to Sue and Martin's home and the one holiday cottage they had at the time.
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Introducing Christian & our new Lake District Travel blog
Some years ago I was introduced to the Dymond Guide books through my contacts with Miller Howe hotel at Windermere. Written by Christian Dymond, they contained a wealth of information on the Lake District and the rest of Cumbria. I absolutely loved them: the way they were written, the quality of the photographs and of the book itself.