Coniston

Coniston is in a beautiful setting between Coniston Water (third largest lake in the Lake District) and Coniston Old Man, the highest of a range of mountains right behind the village. The place is busy with visitors in season, though the narrow roads keep out the biggest coaches, and it has a lively community of local residents.

There are hundreds of places to visit in the area, but the village has everything you need for a holiday without a car.

The excellent Ruskin Museum in the village sets out the local history, which includes:

1. •John Ruskin, Victorian art critic and social reformer, who is buried in the churchyard, and whose house Brantwood can be visited just across the lake
   

2. •Arthur Ransome, who wrote and set the Swallows & Amazons children’s books in Coniston
   

3. •Beatrix Potter, who used the income from her Peter Rabbit books to buy local farmland and whose house Hill Top can be visited 6 miles away
   

4. •Donald Campbell, who died on Coniston Water attempting a world water speed record in his boat Bluebird in 1967
   

Village facilities – all within a few minutes’ level walk from the house:

1. •3 small, well-stocked general stores (one with a butcher), of which the Spar is open 7 days a week until 10pm. Bigger supermarkets are Booths (Waitrose of the North) at Windermere or Ulverston – both about 15 miles away
   

2. •4 pubs serving food, one with its own brewery
   

3. •Petrol station, post office, newsagent, part-time Barclays bank, cafés, gift shops, outdoor gear shops, children’s playground
   

4. •GP surgery
   

5. •Free cash machine in the post office; fee-charging cash machines at the petrol station and the Yewdale Hotel
   

6. •15-minute level walk to Coniston Water lakeside, with pebbly beach, café, boat trips and a boating centre which rents canoes, yachts and bicycles
   

7. •National Trust steamboat “Gondola” sails across the lake to Ruskin’s home Brantwood, which has a great tea room and views
   

8. •Direct buses to Hawskhead, Ambleside, Ulverston and (in summer) Windermere.
   

Walking.  The huge variety of options from the door includes:

1. •through woods and fields along the lake shore
   

2. •through forest and farmland into lovely Yewdale
   

3. •through the grounds of Monk Coniston Hall to Tarn Hows, a famously beautiful small lake in wooded hills
   

4. •along the old railway line to the hamlet of Torver, which has 2 good pubs
   

5. •exploring the old slate and copper mine workings in Coppermines Valley and Tilberthwaite
   

6. •the 1- to 2-hour hike up the Old Man (803m), from where ridges run for miles to other peaks (Dow Crag, Swirl How, Wetherlam), all dotted with hidden valleys and tarns