Lovely article about Herdwick sheep in the Lake District and their Norse origins. Yew Tree Farm near Coniston must be one of the most photogenic farms in the Lakes. It was used as the location for Beatrix Potter's home, Hill Top, in the film Miss Potter. Anyone visiting the nearby beauty spot of Tarn Hows [...]
Introducing my new virtual tour on Historic Carlisle! Take your seat on Wednesday 10 March 2021 at 7.00 pm to hear about Carlisle’s rich history stretching back over 2000 years on a virtual ‘walk’ from the castle to the citadel. The tour will be repeated on 3 other dates on Thursday evenings: 8 April, 6 May [...]
Blue Badge Tourist Guides love to share their knowledge and enthusiasm for areas in which they are qualified to guide. Being able to interpret and open people’s eyes to a new way of ‘seeing’ is a highly rewarding experience for any tourist guide. And almost anyone can become a guide. All you need is enthusiasm, [...]
For unexplained deaths today, we have autopsies and coroner’s reports, but back in the 17th century all sorts of weird and wonderful reasons were given to explain a death. In the Parish Registers of Lamplugh in Cumbria, a remarkable document has survived. It lists the deaths of 112 individuals between 1658 and 1663, of which [...]
Many thanks to Friends of the Lake District for organising a fascinating exercise about connecting with Lake District landscapes. We were asked to identify the various elements of a landscape and to consider their effect on us. What were the dominant features? How did the landscape made us feel? What issues might threaten that landscape? [...]
A wet day in the Lakes generally invites indoor exploration for a Blue Badge Tourist Guide - so it was a perfect time to consider life on the Lake at Windermere Jetty! My destination was the newly re-vamped former Steamboat Museum. It holds a large array of craft that once plied the waters on Windermere [...]
High on the flanks of Coniston Old Man is a little-known yet important industrial archaeological site - Coniston's power-house. Historically, Coniston was known for two main industries: copper and slate. Copper was worked from the mid-1500s up to the 1890s; its presence given away by the reddish-coloured spoil heaps that dot the landscape in the [...]
Have you ever heard of Burnswark? This prominent hill once supported a sizeable Iron Age fort. At the base of the hill are two Roman camps - one to the north; one to the south. It is thought the Romans pincered the fort in order to mount an attack on the Iron Age tribe living on top of [...]
