Sykehouse Cottage

A beautiful C17th Holiday Cottage in the Lake District

Tag Archives: local attractions


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Print Fest 2013

printfest2013How can you not be exhilarated by fresh, affordable art?

Ulverston’s Printfest is the UK’s artist led printmaking festival, dedicated showing and selling contemporary prints.  You can look around and buy works from more than 40 national and international artists, including Printmaker of the Year, Katherine Jones (left).  Artists will be giving demonstrations and there are printmaking workshops for all the family.  Work will also be exhibited around Ulverston town in the Printfest Trail during April.  The main exhibition will be at the Coronation Hall Sat 4 – Sun 5 May, 10 – 5 Tickets: £4 (Children & Students: free).  Further details from Ulverston’s Coronation Hall  or the PrintFest website.


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Wallowbarrow Round Walk

Stepping Stones across the DuddonAt Easter, we tramped through the snow around Wallowbarrow.  This is one of our very favourite walks: a beautiful, quiet river and woodland walk along the Duddon in National Trust land.   It can be as long or as short as you want and has the added bonus of starting/ending at the wonderful Newfield Inn.

In the Summer, we often picnic on a river beach and sometimes even take a dip at Watersmeet where the Tarn Beck meets the river Duddon.  But today we were just grateful that someone had been around before us to tamp down the snow – which in places was higher than our wellies!Memorial Bridge

CawWe wandered about for an hour and finished with lunch at the Newfield.  Run by Paul, this c17th inn at Seathwaite has great, hearty food for walkers, a log fire and a fine selection of local beer.  This lunchtime we ate their famous steak pie and Cumberland sausage and sampled Barngates’ Catnap and Cumberland’s Corby Ale.  Click here for their website.


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The Duddon Mosses

© Natural England copyright 2013

Rather than going up, how about going along for a change?  Sometimes the South Lakes is so dominated by the Fells, we forget about the Estuary and looking out to sea.  The Duddon Mosses is a lowland raised peatbog just south of Broughton in Furness near the village of Foxfield.  It is one of the most important example of this type of peatbog in Britain.  Accessed via a series of boardwalks and clearly signposted, a stroll across the Mosses is a lovely contrast to climbing up and then scrambling down. (Again.)

There are information panels in Broughton Square and at Foxfield Station giving detail about the Mosses and describing a circular walk.

Here are bog plants such as Sphagnum moss, cotton grasses, bog rosemary, cranberry and the spookily carnivorous sundew.   In late spring and early summer, the fluffy heads of cotton grasses and yellow bog asphodel provide a delightful show.  There are plenty of insects and you may spot butterflies and moths as well as crickets, damselflies and dragonflies.  The Mosses are a haven for deer, adders, lizards and frogs.  Barn owls hunt over the Mosses at dusk and the temporary pools created as a result of restoration works are frequented by water birds such as teal and heron.

Steve Benn, the local Natural England officer, would like me to remind people to keep all dogs on a short lead between 1st March and 31st July when walking on the Duddon Mosses to protect the ground nesting birds during the breeding season.

And, of course, after all that fresh air, you could always stop by at the Prince of Wales in Foxfield, renowned for its selection of real ale, on your way home …

For a more detailed walking guide and map follow this link to the Natural England website.

The Ruskin Museum

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Ruskin Museum

The Coniston Room

The Ruskin Museum, down a side street and hidden away, is a huge cabinet of curiosities.  I felt like some sort of Alice wandering around a Museum Wonderland, each area as intriguing as the next.  It’s delightful toy box of memorabilia, informative displays and original artwork.   After a relatively recent revamp, its collection is split into three rooms to help visitors navigate their way around such a disparate yet fascinating collection: The Coniston Room including the small sailboat “Mavis” the original “Swallow” from “Swallows & Amazons”; The new Bluebird Room with lots of details about the World Speed Record attempt; and the Ruskin Room, a lovely Victorian parlour crammed with watercolours and other memorabilia of Ruskin and Collingwood.

What I truly like about the museum is that there is such a variety of objects that, if you are with a family, then everyone will find something of interest – although, I must confess to getting overwhelmed at so much on display.  I’ll have to come on my own sometime.  The boys loved the “Mavis” and the miniature stone houses from the John Usher collection.  I was fascinated by the Neolithic finds and copper mining display whilst Bill spent time in the Bluebird Room, staring at grainy black and white photographs of the speed king, Donald Campbell.  We all loved Ruskin’s slightly rusting and used watercolour paint boxes and dog eared sketch books.

Bluebird Room

The Bluebird Room

Ruskin sketchbooks

The Ruskin Room

You need an hour at the very least to sample its delights.  The museum’s own (quirky) website is here to check on exact location in Coniston, prices and opening times.

If you want to read my post about a young boy’s encounter with Donald Campbell, click here.

This gallery contains 3 photos


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Kids Crazy about Owls? Muncaster Castle!

cute owlsIf you have children under the age of 12, then you’ll know about the Owl Phenomenon: patch worked with big buttons on cushions, stamped on purses, appliqued on t-shirts, drawn on pencil cases and printed on notebook covers. It’s ALL OWLS.

Is it a trickle down from Harry Potter and Hegwig?  Or from the Seventies/Scandinavian design trend we are going through?  Who knows.  It maybe just because they are easy to draw and relatively unisex.

Anyway, if your kids are into owls, then Muncaster Castle is a must during your stay at Sykehouse Cottage.  It’s near Ravenglass and about a half hour car drive north from Broughton in Furness.

The Castle keeps over 50 species in its World Owl Centre from the giant Eagle Owl to the tiny Pygmy Owl.  They breed endangered species including the British Barn Owl.

The Castle also has 70 acres of lovely grounds and the terrifically exciting and quite possibly scary (if you are under 9) Meadow Vole Maze.

You can go in the Castle as well – and check out the ghosts – but we’ve never made it inside as there is too much to do outside.

Save at least half a day for the visit.  The place re-opens on 9th February 2013 and further details can be found here on their website.