I was reading about Ballie Scott this morning and discovered that John Ruskin had spent the last 18 years of his life living in Brantwood on Coniston and the house is open to the public so we went for a look. While the social criticism of John Ruskin and his romantic idealization of craftsmen taking pride in their handiwork inspired the Arts & Crafts movement, we were surprised that his home looked quite Victorian, a bit dark and cluttered with collections of all sorts of things like coins and geology samples. Nonetheless, the visit was interesting and the view across Coniston was lovely and I can see why he fell in love with the location.
Next stop was Wray Castle, a Victorian neo-gothic house built for a retired Liverpool surgeon in 1840. It’s been owned by the National Trust since 1929 and is just a shell, but has a convenient car park so we could do a circular walk.
Firstly we took the path in a loop down to the shores of Windermere and past a waterside barn …
… then back up the hill and round Blelham Tarn …
…with views towards Ambleside and Wansfell behind …
…before returning through this pinch stile to the car. It was a lovely afternoon and the short walk was perfect.
On the way back, we drove through Ambleside and Windermere which were heaving with visitors and were pleased we’d managed to avoid the crowds on a busy Bank Holiday Sunday, but still have a fab day out. We have only had a glimpse of the Lake District and even Kendal looked as though it deserved a better look, but time was short.
We ended the day munching pizza while watching the first of a new series of Vera and prepared to pack up and head to Yorkshire in the morning
Off Travelling Together 