It was not a glorious, sunny day when we last visited Brockhole, the Lake District Visitor Centre. Rather it was the end of one of those weeks that give the Lake District lakes their water. Nevertheless we spent a most enjoyable two or three hours.

Brockhole is not to be confused with “Brockholes”, the nature reserve now run by The Wildlife Trust fifty miles south of here by the River Ribble in Lancashire. It is a large old house in splendid grounds on the eastern shore of the lake, between Windermere village and Ambleside.

The official guardian of the Lake District, along with Cumbria County Council, is the “Lake District National Park Authority” and the LDNPA (as it is often known) has occupied Brockhole for many years. Today the house is the official National Park visitor centre, whilst the head offices of the Authority are (rather incongruously but probably more conveniently) just outside the Park boundary at Kendal.

Once inside you have a wide variety of things to keep you occupied. You can, of course, simply walk around the grounds, admiring the scenery. You may, though, have come for one of the many organised events that cater for both adults and children. Often there are special exhibitions in the gallery rooms of the house. I recall one of sensational black and white photographs showing very early Lake District rock climbing. There is a shop which stocks much of Lake District interest and, as you might expect, you can eat.

The splendid Thomas Mawson garden, laid out in the Arts and Crafts style, covers thirty acres and overlooks Windermere with the Langdale Pikes in the background. Or maybe you’re a fan of kitchen gardens; then there’s something for you too. We hadn’t come for a particular event but we did all those other things mentioned above, and especially we explored the grounds. The weather cleared and, by the time we left, Brockhole and its visitors were enjoying the sun.

If you are visiting the Lake District make sure you take some time out to visit Brockhole. I don’t believe you’ll be disappointed. Entry to the house and grounds is free apart from car parking, so when you’ve had several days of shelling out for pricey attractions elsewhere this can be a great relief to the wallet. The house is open all year round except Christmas Day from 10am to 5pm, although the closing time changes in the winter months to 4pm. The grounds and the children’s adventure playground open all year from 8am to 6pm. See the Brockhole web site for more detail.

The photographs here were all taken during that visit in 2008. It’s surely time to go back again and take some photos in the sunshine. Now that “Around-England” is based in Cumbria we really have no excuse.

Whatever is this? Monster Roots in Brockhole Garden

During the past few days I’ve noticed quite a lot of comments on social sites such as Twitter about the Lake District weather.  From some it has been, “Arrrgh! It’s raining! I don’t like this!” From others it has been more like, “”It’s raining, but beautiful nonetheless.”

The three photos below illustrate the final day of a four day holiday with my wife in August 2008.  I blogged about it at the time under the title, “Four seriously damp but totally delightful days among the English lakes“. We camped in the rain near Coniston Water. It was raining when we arrived.  It rained while we were there.  It rained as we were leaving.  As we drove past Newby Bridge (photograph above) we suddenly said, “Why don’t we go and get a cup of coffee at Fell Foot Park?  We’ve got our National Trust membership sticker on the car windscreen so it will be free (apart from the coffee of course).

By this time it had stopped actually raining but was still a very dull day, not what you want in August. From Fell Foot, close to where the River Leven leaves the lake, I took a number of photos including this one.

An hour or so later we’d moved further up the lake to Brockhole, the National Park centre. It was still cloudy but with patches of brightness and I was able to get a picture of the Swan carrying a few hardy visitors up and down the lake.

And then, as we walked up by the house at Brockhole the clouds parted and the sun appeared. Through the trees there was blue, on the trees there were brilliant greens.

Our detour along the Windermere shore had been more than worth the time.  It crowned what was a marvellous week – even in the Lake District rain.  And we have to remember that “If there were no rain there’d be no lakes”.

It was announced a few days ago that The Great North Swim, organised by Nova International, a company founded by Brendan Foster the 1976 Olympic bronze medallist, is to be held again at Windermere in the English Lake District.

Last year was its first, and was oversubscribed at 2,500 entries.  This year it will be spread over 2 days, September 12th and 13th, allowing 5,000 people to take part.  In addition to the big names of swimming it is expected that thousands of ordinary people will swim the mile-long open water course from a spot on the lake shore by the Low Wood Hotel.

If you’re a swimmer there’s time to train, but possibly very little time to enter as this event is likely to be extremely popular and places are limited.

A range of charities will benefit from this outstanding Lake District event, including Diabetes UK, Cancer Research UK and Lifeboats to mention only three.

The High Court has ruled in favour of the Lake District National Park Authority and its Windermere lake speed limit. A group known as the Keep Windermere Alive Association had attempted to trigger a full legal review of the speed limit which was imposed four years ago.

The response to this will inevitably be mixed, with some of the boating community distraught but many others pleased at the preservation of a quieter lake environment.