@ann - In heels? OMG! How are your feet these days, lol?

Don't worry, I'm in the middle of trying to book somewhere to stay on St. Mary's (seems popular!), and have just got through figuring out how early I can book the night train.

Here's a story of the Belle Isle people.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...s-company.html

It helps when you are born with a silver spoon and Daddy sold one of the largest insurance companies around.

Windermere is a stunning place but there is a tendency for it to be the haunt of the Manchester diabolical set. We had a yacht on the Lake for 6 years and in the end sold it in favour of a Scottish holiday home. We just had too many runs ins with empire building megalomaniacs. I've seen fist fists over parking spaces at the Drunken Duck in July.

I love the rental on Windermere, didn't know it existed. Is it north of the ferry on the west side?

The boat house on Ullswater was sold recently for over £1m.

'We had friends who owned the Windermere Ice Cream Company in the mid 80s but went out of business because the summers of 85-87 were some of the coldest and wettest on record! '

It's never too cold for ice cream.

Apologies for any confusion - the boathouse we rented was on Ullswater, half way down the west shore i.e. midway between Pooley Bridge and Glenridding. Diagonally opposite Howtown.

Did it seriously sell for seven figures, or is that another place? If so please share your lakehouse porn for me to enjoy over my coffee break BritishCaicos!

great report

this is what happens when you drive a bus down "The Struggle"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/2033123.stm

oh my goodness, your photos are exquisite! I have English friends who hike in the Lake District and now I can see how beautiful it is. This sounds like a place I would love.

Looking forward to reading more!

http://www.countryfile.com/countrysi...rside-retreats

It went for £500,000 in 2009 (ish) then it was tarted up and I'm sure it was was put up for £1m not sure if it sold. It is possible to rent it.

Proper porn :

https://www.onthemarket.com/details/963915/

That one isn't really that big. The proper big ones aren't sold on the open market.

Rumours are this is £6m

https://www.onthemarket.com/details/963963/

The top one of your links is the Duke of Portland boathouse, British Caicos. The agency we rented ours from also have it on their listings! It is very photogenic and lovely inside with a wooden tub in the bathroom, woodburner and more blokey decor, but also right by the road, so potentially less tranquil. I have decided I am buying the one we stayed in when I retire

Voila!

http://www.lakescottageholiday.co.uk...FWHLtAodDT8Anw

Thank you sofarsogood and hikrchick - more to come later!

Yes, sorry crossed wires. It was the D of P which was up for £1m.

Blokey decor indeed. Think you would need to use testosterone as aftershave to appreciate that interior.

Loved your rental, reds and all.

We have reds in our garden in Scotland, they are so elegant. They are also very dopey and it's unfortunately very easy to hit them on the road, they just dont seem aware.

Greys are so vulgar.

My garden at home has grey squirrels and I'd like to swap them for reds. Someone must do some sort of trade in....

Much research up here currently.

Apparently, Pine Martens decimate grey populations in the same way that greys decimate reds. Interestingly, the Martens don't interfere with reds and they co exist.

There's talk that in the next few years there may be a huge program to wipe out the Yankee invaders with some Scottish local muscle.

Ps if you two are meeting up again, try Galloway. It's beautiful, extremely quiet and packed with wildlife.

You'd love Kippford

http://www.magnetcottagekippford.co.uk/

I don't know that part of the country at all but it looks lovely in the pics. If there are otters (to aww at) and squat lobsters (to eat), I am probably sold.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=X08vTU7_hT8

Otter from the front window of the rental cottage.

Lobsters, white bait, shark (and more) from our local fish and chip shop on the quayside.

http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.u...header-450.jpg

Beautiful place, where the Scallop boat "Solway Harvester" was based. It was lost at sea in 2000 during an immense storm, all seven on board lost their lives.

We get a tenth of the visitors that Cumbria enjoys and probably like it that way. My MIL lives just outside Keswick, she's moving out after 60 years due to the lack of community and too many holiday homes.

More property porn :

http://www.primelocation.com/for-sal...o2lwuSw8Yth.97

http://www.abamatthews.com/particula...own=Garlieston

The second one, Galloway House was £595,000 which has to be the best value of any house to come on the UK market this year. It sold fairly quickly.

Very nice, but a bit above my budget! And you'd have to sell a kidney to cover the heating bills ...

Ps thank you for the otter

I am in serious admiration of anyone who can do any of the fells in heels, Ann>>

I seriously think that fodors needs a joke symbol. of course there's no way that I'd wear stilettos to climb anything, [not even a ladder] but I have seen people in footwear almost that stupid.

Thursdaysd - glad that you've not given up your cornwall plan. Good luck with finding somewhere on St Mary's - we stayed in a sweet little cottage there once but it's no longer rented out, sadly.

Thursday

Another reasonable morning weatherwise for our last full day in the lakes. Quick brekkie of tea and yoghurt this time – mainly cos we’d not washed up the grill pan from yesterday. Following a brief debate on whether rucksacks, water bottles and waterproofs might be needed (no, no and no) we were off in the car for our shortest trip yet – just a couple of miles south on the road to Glenridding, to visit Aira Force waterfall.

We pulled into the National Trust carpark and headed off up a footpath at the back of the lot that took you away from Ullswater and the road and into a wooded gorge in the hills. The path split after a short distance, offering you two routes to the falls. I’d got a couple of guides to walks in Lakes (written by the excellent Vivienne Crow) and they recommended that you take the right hand fork because it brings you out at the base of the falls with the most spectacular views of the cascade, rather than the top, where you don’t get the same vista of falling water, just a view back down the gorge. We were soon walking alongside a creek of relatively gentle white water and rocks fed by the falls further upstream – very picturesque. The path was relatively easy going – mostly level and flinty, though every now and then there were steps in various states of repair and wet patches from springs linking out of the hills, so you just had a to take a little care.

It didn’t take long to get to Aira Force – I think the distance from the car park is barely half a mile, and we emerged into a clearing where we could see the falls gushing down about 70 feet into the creek, stone ‘fairy’ bridges across both the bottom and the top of the cascade. There were steps either side of the falls – wet slatey ones – and we climbed to the top of the left hand flight to get views back downstream. From this elevated point the path continued on over the fells and you could do a much longer walk, going as far as a second set of falls – High Force – or retrace your steps to the carpark via one of the two paths that led back to the lot. We took copious photographs, then headed back to the car through the woods. Many of the trees had labels telling you that they were redwoods, monkey puzzle etc. Tommy commented that the folds around the monkey puzzle tree trunk made it look as though it was melting.

Our tentative plan for the afternoon was to go on the Ullswater steamers, so we headed into Glenridding to check the timetables, but the next sailing looked to be nearly two hours away, so we opted to drive over to Castlerigg stone circle near Keswick instead. This route took us along the A5091, a road that we both loved, winding across the fells passing tiny hamlets and yet more sheep. Following the signs, we were at Castlerigg in no time at all, and in defiance of the cold wind, buying ice creams from a van parked alongside the field where the stone circle was located. We both had oysters – shell-shaped wafers filled with vanilla ice cream, and Tommy’s also had a flake in. With freezy insides as well as outsides we ventured into the field, dripping ice cream and trying to take lens caps off of cameras to capture the ancient monument that lay before us. Whilst Castlerigg is not on the scale of say, Stonehenge, the setting is absolutely outstanding. You are on a high fell, yet all around you in a circle are multiple other fells and mountains, towering well above you. Blencathra in one direction. Skiddaw just over its shoulder. Hellvellyn and Striding Edge south west. Just magical! The stones themselves form a near complete circle and you can wander among them unhampered (if you don’t mind sharing with sheep that is).

Pictures snapped we warmed up back in the car, then Tommy suggested we head down to nearby Derwentwater and see if we could pick up one of the cruisers there, instead of doubling back to Ullswater. All in favour of efficiency, I agreed and we headed into town, by now (over)confident enough not to need the sat nav. After a bit of mild ffafing (read – getting lost!) we managed to find a parking area by the lake, duly purchased our pay-and-display ticket, then made our way down to the shore past a mountain festival (wigwams and a lot of outdoor clothing sponser banners) being set up on the north bank of Derwentwater. Heading to the piers we checked out the sailing times and prices of the cruisers, then purchased tickets for a round trip, about £9 each. You can hop on and off the boats at various jetties too, and a lot of people opted to do this, completeing the circuit of the lake partly on foot and partly on water. Tommy took some video of the cruise on a teeny Sony camcorder thingy that we had been given to test – we are in a scheme called Vine, which is run by Amazon, in which you get freebies in return for product testing and writing descriptions/reviews. (This is also where the Sirah came from!). Hopefully he might post a clip although my inane comments may have to be edited off the soundtrack first…

Our cruiser was a nice wooden open barge, and again we had seats near the front to maximise photo potential. We enjoyed a gentle circuit of the lake under mostly sunny skies, watching keeners getting on and off in walking gear and/or changing to hired canoes and rowing boats. We loved Derwentwater, which was a mass of tiny wooded islands, wooded shore line and reed beds – very different from the barren tranquillity of Ullswater, or the full-on tourist mecca of Windermere. Although the Swallows and Amazons books were not set here, funnily enough it was the lake that most evoked that spirit to me.

Feeling hungry (by now it was mid-afternoon) we headed back to Glenridding for an afternoon tea at The Inn On The Lake. This large, grand hotel sits right on the shore of Ullswater in grounds with beautifully manicured lawns and Japanese acers. The tea itself was very generous, four different types of finger sandwich, scones with cream and jam, three types of cookie, including lovely light gingery biscuits, and multiple types of cakes, including cream horns, eclairs, mini Victoria sponges and mini lemon meringue pies. There were also tiny little redcurrant trifles in shot glasses. The food was very tasty, but the sandwiches were chilled and stuck together – clearly they’d been pre-prepared and just come out of a fridge or even a freezer. I enjoyed the tea a lot despite this, but I think Tommy was mildly outraged – or at the least baffled, which was understandable because the menu clearly stated the teas were freshly prepared (and even apologised for the wait!!). There was too much to eat, tasty as it was, but the staff were very sweet and insisted on boxing up the uneaten cakes for us to take home.

We swore the epic cakefest would do us for the day, but somehow, a couple of hours later we were hungry again and decided to head into Ambleside for dinner as a bit of a change from the Brackenrigg Inn that evening. Tommy drove and kindly slowed right down for me through Patterdale so I could finally get a picture of the squirrel roadsign (yay!), then over the pass, down The Struggle and into town. I was really quite impressed with the variety of restaurants available in Ambleside. Initially we were very tempted by Sheila’s Cottage with its haddock risotto, but spotted the heinous crime of fish and vanilla pairing just in time to made our escape, drooled over a scandi influenced menu of razor clams and sea buckthorn at a very pared down and contemporary bistro, before finally plumping for the Priest Hole. Here, Tommy had something porky with a black pudding and apple stack, and beautifully piped duchess potatoes. I had a burger with home made tomato relish and big fat chips. We managed coffee, but not pud and went dutch on the bill.

Back at the boathouse we cleaned the grill pan with a scourer picked up at Glenridding stores and managed to agree on Gravity for our final DVD without any domestics.


Aira Force:-

http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/aira...and-ullswater/

Stone circle:-

http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/v...g-stone-circle

"but I have seen people in footwear almost that stupid. "

Cat Bells, Derwentwater : famous for it.

Hardened fell walkers now deny that they they ever climbed Cat Bells, its become a sort of WAG hill. On any given Bank Holiday Monday you see trainers, heels, thigh boots, foam sandals, flip flops, flippers, along with LV luggage and Silver Cross prams.

Cat Bells is for townies.