After nearly six decades living in and around beautiful Grasmere, I am often asked what is the nicest part of the Lake District and where should I go swimming.
To answer, I only have to close my eyes to resurrect early memories of seemingly endless blistering summer days filled with carefree laughter and adventures straight out of Swallows and Amazons.
After nearly six decades living in and around beautiful Grasmere, I am often asked what is the nicest part of the Lake District and where should I go swimming.
To answer, I only have to close my eyes to resurrect early memories of seemingly endless blistering summer days filled with carefree laughter and adventures straight out of Swallows and Amazons.
If you have ever read Arthur Ransome’s classic children’s novel inspired by Lake Windermere and Coniston Water, you already have a flavour of my remembered childhood.
Like the book’s fictional Walker family, everyone in my friendship group imagined themselves as explorers. On hot summer afternoons we wandered at will or cycled off into the distance without a care in the world. It was utter freedom; an idyllic freedom that only retrospectively seems fraught with danger.
Our favourite walk in the Lake District took us out of the centre of Grasmere village, alongside moss-covered dry-stone walls and up towards Easedale Tarn.
Photo by Shane Sykes - English Wikipedia.
Although forbidden by our parents (and it’s only now that I understand why) we trekked to a shady rock pool called Dead Man’s Dub. We dived in, splashing and screaming as it was always icy-cold. We could easily have slipped on the rocks and banged our heads but the thrill of the chill in the heat of the day consumed us all.
Not far away from Dead Man’s Dub is the famous Steel Bridge over Easedale Beck. We would throw a blanket on the ground, open our picnic and hungrily tuck in. After paddling in the stream, we would lie back and enjoy the sunshine. It was heaven.
Steel Bridge in my younger days
Photo © Copyright David Dixon.
Steel Bridge today – not too much steel but now wood!
As for the nicest part of the Lake District - and, of course, I am hopelessly prejudiced - it has to be the valley and village of Grasmere and its wonderful lake. In the long, hot summer of 1976 - when the ruins of Mardale Green village became visible as the water level of Haweswater Reservoir fell to its lowest level since the valley was flooded in 1935 - the lake at Grasmere seemed impervious to drought.
Photo by Mick Knapton - Wikepedia.
As children we visited the now renamed Faeryland Boat Landing to buy ice cream and take to the water. Wearing light cotton dresses, we rowed out to The Island - our version of Wild Cat Island from Swallows and Amazons - to explore the interior, sit on its shore and look out across the valley. Now owned by the National Trust, access to The Island is restricted and the woodland is a haven for wildlife. Back then, a second boat landing attached to the then Prince of Wales Hotel (now the Daffodil Hotel & Spa) boasted its own fleet of rowing boats for visitors to take to the lake.
Today, my greatest innocent pleasure is taking the short ferry hop across Lake Windermere from Ferry Nab at Bowness to Ferry House near Far Sawrey on the other side, a distance of just over 500 yards. I love wandering the lush green path to Hawkshead, pick up a takeaway coffee at our second Grasmere Gingerbread® shop and sit at the village’s St Michael and All Angels Church which has fabulous views across the hills.
Photo Ian Dick - Wikipedia.
In the Lake District in summer, life is gentler and when it’s hot (because we are not used to it) we naturally slow down and revel in the lush flora, vibrant fauna, shimmering waters and blue sky. I love the warmth, the birdsong, the smell of cut grass and the chance to close my eyes and think ‘thoughts that that do often lie too deep for tears’.
Until next time.....
