Sykehouse Cottage

A beautiful C17th Holiday Cottage in the Lake District

Category Archives: Things To Do


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Hepworth at Abbot Hall

We are hepworth abbot hallvery excited at Sykehouse Cottage as Abbot Hall comes up trumps again and brings a stunning collection of Barbara Hepworth sculpture to Kendal for their Summer Exhibition from 5 July to 28 September.  Apart from Barbara Hepworth: A Retrospective at Tate Liverpool in 1994, this is the first significant exhibition of her work in the North West for over sixty years. It will contain some of Hepworth’s most iconic sculptures including Stringed Figure (Curlew), 1956, Torso III (Galatea), 1958, and Moon Form, 1968, alongside prints, photographs and ephemera detailing the artist’s life long relationship with the landscape. Lakeland Arts are working closely with the Hepworth Estate to secure key works as well as borrowing from national institutions for this important exhibition.

The landscape provided unending inspiration for Hepworth’s art.  And perhaps you will be inspired by the beautiful Lakeland landscape when you next visit?

Kendal is 30 miles (about 45mins drive)  from Sykehouse Cottage and is well worth a day trip for Abbot Hall, Museum of Lakeland Life & Industry, of course,  and numerous shops and coffee houses …

If you would like to know more about Abbot Hall Art Gallery click here.


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Duddon, Bleansey, Lickle.

duddon lickle walk Walk : Duddon, Bleansey, Lickle.

This short stroll down to the river and back up again is now called Uncle David’s Walk as we rambled around it after his funeral one fine September.

Turn right out of Sykehouse cottage and up the hill to the High Cross Inn.  Cross the busy A595 to the pavement beyond and walk down to find the signpost and gateway off to the left.  Leaving the traffic madness behiIMG_9018nd, stroll along the footpath across the River Lickle and fields down to the Duddon at a spot called The Sheep Dip.  Good bathing in the Summer.  At the river bank turn right and stroll along past the wild garlic and trees to the bridge.  Stopping for the obligatory skimming stones contest.

Then cross the road by the traffic lights at the bridge and climb up the Ulpha Road, pass the first set of houses at Bank End.  Look out for a rough track and signpost on the right leading up through some woods and out down the bottom of gorse covered Bleansley Bank.

IMG_9039At Lower Bleansley, a collection of farmhouses, turn right through the barns, down across the marshy pasturelands by the Lickle again, heading for Manor Farm.  Follow the farm road up to the Coniston Road.  Cross over to the White Gates of West Park, known by locals as the Show Field.  Stop and admire the newly dredged pond, before making you way back across the field and into Broughton Square by the Coniston Road.

Takes about 2 hrs.  One short steep climb through the woods at Bleansley Bank.


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Townend: A Quiet Jewel

townendTownend : A Quiet Jewel.

East of Windermere is an historical treasure that we have a special interest in – for it was built around about the same time as Sykehouse Cottage.  It’s attached to no famous name and therefore doesn’t attract the crowds – like that other farm on the west of the Lake, Hill Top, does – but for a delightful insight into 400 years of Lakeland life, Townsend is perfect.  The Browne family was an ordinary farming family but their home at Troutbeck is a beautiful evocation of a past life and well worth a detour to visit.  The place is crammed full of quirky household objects from c17th onwards.  There are excellent, informative guided tours and often they put on an afternoon of cooking where they recreate some of the recipes from the Brownes’ family recipe books.

Townend is a National Trust property and is open from March to October.  It’s about 20 miles from the Cottage and for further details on opening times and prices, follow this link.


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Sticky Toffee Pudding

sticky toffee pudding

Recently a guest asked me for some foodie day trip suggestions – and I immediately thought of Cartmel, a half hour’s drive away from Sykehouse cottage.  The village has the famous L’Enclume restaurant run by Simon Rogan (Lunch £45 and Dinner £120)  with  its sister brasserie, Rogan & Co.  And now his empire has extended to the local pub, The Pig & Whistle.  It also has a very beautiful priory to wander around.

But I bet most people visit Cartmel for the PUDDING.

Cartmel Village Shop started baking Sticky Toffee puddings in their back kitchen about 20 years ago. They have now moved to a bigger kitchen but it’s still handmade and there’s still nothing to match it for rounding off a Sunday lunch.  If you don’t have a chance to visit, their puddings are sold at the local grocers, Melville Tyson,  in Broughton-in-Furness.  Look out for their distinctive pale blue packs in the chiller cabinets.

And rather wonderfully, they also do mail order from their website here.


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Birk’s Bridge to the Newfield Inn

Hard Knott We started at the NT car park just above the beautiful Hobbit-like Birk’s Bridge and headed into the forestry land, marked on the OS map as Dunnerdale Forest and by the Forestry Signs as Hardknott Forest.  Much of the wood that was described by Wainwright as “young plantations” has now been cleared and neatly stacked up making for a rather beautiful, if working, landscape.  The Commission is now replanting the forest as a mixed deciduous rather than the stark fir crop to reflect the changing purposes of these fells. 

We used the level forestry roads rather than the narrower public footpaths as they are lovely for chatting whilst walking.  IMG_8561Good progress was made across the forest to Grassguards Farm with its little concreted ford.  Here we picked up the Grassguards Gill bridleway down into the beautiful gnarled trees and river walks around Wallowbarrow.   Here, we took the opportunity to lob some rather large stones in the river before retiring to the Newfield for half pints of CatNap and something-and-chips. WallowBarrow

The walk took one hour 40 minutes and we were helped by another member of the family was waiting to provide a lift to retrieve cars rather than having to walk back after a rather heavy meal!


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Wainwright’s Pictorial Guides: “all the little trees on this map”.

IMG_8255The charm of these guides undoubtedly lies in Wainwright’s personal touch with painstakingly detailed heather covered fells and minute contour lines; carefully annotated compass view points; and multiple approaches to each summit.  But amongst all this obsessive detail, Wainwright does relax every so often and the hard work is leavened by a joke or two such as: “TAKE CARE DO NOT START FIRE and so waste the effort spent in drawing all the little trees on this map.  The Forestry Commission, too, will be annoyed.”

Wainwright’s sketch of the Summit of Coniston Old Man includes details and descriptions of  “Tourists looking for Blackpool Tower”, a regimented line of Boy Scouts and “a Solitary fell walker, bless him, looking north to the hills.”

We hope you will find your own favourite vignettes whilst planning your walks!

For further information about Alfred Wainwright, please follow this link to the Wainwright Society.


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Wainwright’s Fourth Volume: “Heaven fallen upon the earth”

IMG_8252In the Personal Notes at the end of his Fourth Volume on the Southern Fells, Wainwright noted that “there had been a clamour for Book Four ever since the first in the series appeared” because these fells “just happen to be a bit of heaven fallen upon the earth.”

This orange striped volume is the one we use the most and it is dedicated to: “the hardiest of all fell walkers, The Sheep of Lakeland, the truest lovers of the mountains, their natural homes and providers of their food and shelter” … and, sheep like, the chapters scramble up and down the thirty fells of the Southern Lakes from Scafell Pike to Holme Fell.  He includes the direct route to Coniston Old Man: “this is the way the crowds go”; plus the one via Boo Tarn: “a climb for … the discerning walker” and one ascent from Torver with its view of Dow Crag, “one of the grandest rock-faces in the district”.

We hope you enjoy planning your walks!

For further information about Alfred Wainwright, please follow this link to the Wainwright Society.


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Wainwright’s Pictorial Guides: fireside companions.

WainwrightIn Sykehouse Cottage there is a complete set of the 50th anniversary edition of Wainwright’s Pictorial Guides to the Lakeland Fells. These seven little hardback books contain the most magical evocation of fell walking I have ever encountered. Each of the seven volumes is dedicated to a different group of people or animal: map makers, dogs, solitary wanderers and each book has a personal note at the end. And this warm and idiomatic approach to the fells is continued throughout the books which are hand drawn – and handwritten (!) – guides to walking the fells.
The walks are catalogued with a wonderful combination of description and maps, complete with contour lines, tussocks of grass and little trees and personal observation. Poring over these little black and white drawings and humorous asides draws you from your armchair into the vast green fells of your imagination and makes you want to jump into this Lilliputian world of Wainwright and bestride the fells like Gulliver. As Wainwright himself puts it: “this book has been written, carefully and with infinite patience, for my own pleasure and because it has seemed to bring the hills to my own fireside.”
We hope you enjoy planning your walks!
For further information about Alfred Wainwright, please follow this link to the Wainwright Society.


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Muncaster Castle – a family run experience …

Muncaster CastleAfter enduring many “experiences” of an expensive and very themed nature in days out with the Rigg tribe, a trip to Muncaster Castle is always a delight. There are no expensive photo opportunities to catch the unwary, nor an exit-through-big-gift-shop policy.  The castle has a charmingly individualistic audio tour written and read by the family which makes a refreshing change from an actor reading from carefully nuanced script.

They highlight family favourites: “I always point out the ships’ anchors and the date 1588 on the fireback!” barks the owner.  “Never forget the Armada lost some ships on this coast!”

Family losers:“This portrait is of the one we call the Drip.” “Here’s a family portrait and can you see how two of the sons’ heads are pasted in? They must have been the ones he wasn’t talking to.”

And apologies for not opening more rooms on account of the mess: “Sorry, you’re not allowed into my dressing room. We all need a door to throw our pyjamas behind!”.

I only paraphrase slightly.

Muncaster Castle is an truly original day out and 12 only miles from Sykehouse Cottage.  It would be a shame to miss it if you are in the area.


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Silecroft Beach in the High Winds

In the high winds of October this year, team Rigg all drove down to the beach at Silecroft.  This long stretch of pebbly beach is a favourite of ours: an excellent spot for a “blow” with the children.  There are never many people here just a couple of stalwart fisherman with high rods planted in the stones and their long lines stretched into the waves.

This trip was particularly exciting as we fought against the blustery winds and stepped through the foam which was flying across the beach from the sea.

Only 8 miles away from Sykehouse Cottage, it has a car park and stone steps leading down to the shore.  No café but there’s sometimes an ice cream van parked up in the Summer.IMG_8282