Keswick - The Northern Lakes District

Keswick

Our first afternoon in Keswick, we walked up to Castlerigg Circle.  It’s just a few miles out of town, up on top of a hill.  It was built around 4,500 years ago and its large size and irregular oval shape suggest that it was an early stone circle, built by prehistoric farming communities here in the Lake District.  It is also said that these stones could have been used for a trading post, social gatherings, an astronomical observatory, or site of religious ceremonies.  Some scientists remark about the position of the largest rocks on either end and how they reflect the mountain peaks in those directions.  Regardless, It was an amazing sight in the midst of sheep country.  It was a quiet and peaceful location.  I am including a photo of the last little road leading to the monument with hedgerows on either side.  It was a great 3.5 mile, hilly loop that would be a perfect regular ‘workout’ loop.  Hmmm.  Here are some shots we took on the walk up the hill looking down at the town and lake. The rest are at or near the top.

Derwentwater in background

We backed up against the wall when a Prius decided to join us on the road.

Thursday morning we decided to take a boat ride around Lake Derwent (Derwentwater).  It was beautiful; the middle dotted with a couple of little islands.  There are usually 7 stops for the boat but they had to eliminate 2 of them because of the low tide.  They had no rainfall for 6 plus weeks, until we arrived, of course.  We got off the boat about 2/3 of the way around and went for a walk along the coastline on the far side of the lake, then through the woods and back to another pier, there are 7 total, for pickup back to the Keswick marina.  It was all very pretty.  The trees have beautiful windswept limbs.  The sun struggled to shine but it lost the battle for the most part.  We were all but drenched by the time we arrived back in tow. 

These hand carved hands were amazing!

After a giant cup of hot chocolate, a muffin, and our clothes dried out some, we made our way to a place called the Acorn House about 15 miles out and another British Heritage sight.  It had beautiful gardens and an old water wheel that was used to grind oats on the premises.  The gardens were beautiful with some plants I was unfamiliar with but of course that makes it all the more interesting.  They had a beautiful crimson peony and another same color but a 6 foot tree variety.  Of course our friends the sheep were everywhere around and we just got a kick out of them, especially the newbie’s who just love to literally kick up their heels and play with one another.  I’ll try to restrain myself with more sheep pictures, but no promises

Loving the crimson peonies!

   

We enjoyed another good breakfast this morning.  The food was good but it’s the people that make it so memorable.  Today, we were the youngest guests. This is the weekend of the annual jazz festival in Keswick.  It lasts for 4 days, uses 13 venues, and it is their 20^th year.  One of the other guests shared the program with us and we were just amazed.  There were three couples and two single gentlemen.  They were all talking about who they were going to see later today, and reviewed the day before.   These folks were so happy and enthused it just made me smile.  I was reminded about my parents.  They would have loved to have been here, jazz and all.