Attractions

Going to the Wordsworth House? Which one?

December 6, 2011

Wordsworth House, Cockermouth “We’re going to the Wordsworth House this afternoon.” “Oh good. You’ll enjoy that. Which one?” It’s easy to imagine that kind of conversation between Lake District visitors over a lunch table. Currently there are three houses with strong Wordsworth connections open to the public, and before long the three will be four. [...]

Our Winter Visitors

November 23, 2011

During the summer months the North of England welcomes visitors in their hundreds of thousands from all around the globe. Those human visitors drop off after September but we then start to see a different kind of visitor, flying in from colder climes. This morning I spotted two reports of White Fronted Geese arriving from [...]

The River Eden at Appleby This Afternoon

November 17, 2011

The sunshine attracted me away from the keyboard after lunch today. My target, with cameras, was the River Eden at Appleby (or, to give it its full name, Appleby-in-Westmorland). What the warplanes circling and thundering overhead were aiming at, in addition to making white trails in the almost cloudless sky, is anyone’s guess. Ignoring the [...]

Brockholes, Preston – “An Unreserved Reserve”

November 11, 2011

Brockholes Nature Reserve just outside Preston is a remarkable initiative of the Lancashire Wildlife Trust. I am old enough to remember the building of Britain’s first motorway. And it wasn’t the M1; it was the M6 Preston bypass. For almost forty years I would regularly drive the seven or eight miles from home to join [...]

Nature Reserves in the North of England

November 10, 2011

The North of England has a remarkable number of nature reserves, and I’ve decided to include a directory to many (hopefully most) of these on Around-England.co.uk. For starters I’ve now launched version 1 of a page entitled “The RSPB in the North of England“. At present it contains just a simple listing, a brief indication [...]

Some Places to Visit in the Lake District

October 28, 2011

[Updated from a 2008 post]In addition to the lakes themselves there is a wide variety of things to do in the Lake District. There are places to visit ranging from the literary connections of Dove Cottage at Grasmere (home of the poet William Wordsworth) to the practicalities (although also with artistic potential) of the pencil [...]

Cairns on Wild Boar Fell

October 27, 2011

The photo below is of Wild Boar Fell, looking over the western side of Mallerstang Common from near Pendragon Castle in the Upper Eden Valley. If you look carefully you can just see the little points sticking up from the table top of The Nab, to the left of the picture. Here now is a [...]

Hellgill Force – The Upper Eden Valley

October 26, 2011

At the very top of the Eden Valley, close by where Cumbria borders with Yorkshire a stream flows down the hillside then suddenly plunges into the depths of a ravine. The stream is the infant Eden. The waterfall is Hellgill Force. Two weeks ago I strolled briefly around there, leaving the car by the county [...]

Pendragon Castle in the Sunshine

October 18, 2011

As I said in a previous post about the Mallerstang Valley it can be a wild place. Last time I was there the pictures were of gloom: This past weekend, however, I saw it in a different light.

Yorkshire Dales Award for Far Moor Bridge

October 17, 2011

Congratulations to the Yorkshire Dales National Park for their new award for the Far Moor bridge. This innovative design and timber construction was developed with the help of the Forestry Commission and provides an important river crossing on the 200-mile Pennine Bridleway national trail currently being developed, and opening next year. Far Moor bridge in [...]

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →