The Latest News from The Coppermines and Lakes Cottages

Ziggie was born on 1st July 2004.

She is a pedigree "red merle" border collie and she came to live with us in Coniston a few weeks ago.

Like many of us she spends some time each day " at the office " in Coniston Village - where she meets many visitors.

Here she is at about 8 weeks old, enjoying the sunshine in Coppermines Valley.

From a bundle of "fluff", Ziggie is now finding her way around the valley.

She often sets off along the old millrace to meet the visitors at The Coppermines Mountain Cottages.

Having now learnt to climb, she wanders above the cottages in Coppermines Valley, near to the big holly bush.

With her friends Ziggie heads up Stickle Ghyll to The Langdale Pikes

For details of this walk please follow this link to www.lakedistrict for dogs.co.uk

Stopping for a rest , with Rob, Ken Leanne, Kate, Eileen and Mary, although Ziggie is keen to keep going !

Having reached Stickle Tarn, her frields look over to Pavey Ark, where they are going to climb "Jacks Rake" a rock scramble up the gully you can see running diagonally across the mountain face from bottom left to top right.

The first snow !
This is the first snow Ziggie has ever actually seen !
Leanne looks across Stickle Tarn to The Coniston Fells.

Climbing the gully on Jacks Rake proves quite challenging, but Ziggie soon learns how to find the best way !

Near the top on a rocky ledge Ziggie, Kate, Leanne, Adam and Rob look over to Windermere.

With friends from Shropshire, Ziggie heads from Coppermines Valley up the fells and here looks over Red Dell to snowy Wetherlam.

Here we are at Levers Water in the Coniston Mountains - its early March and there is still a little snow on the tops of the mountains. The ice has melted on the tarn.

We spent the day on the hills and walked along the ridge on Wetherlam.

There is a great walk up Wetherlam on the www.lakedistrictfordogs.co.uk web-site.

Spring is a little late arriving this year but we walked out through Tilbertwaite to Little Langdale. The blossom was beautiful and all the flowers were out in the meadow.

On the way we passed Tilberthwaite Farm that is farmed by the Wilkinsons - this farm was one of sixteen owned by Beatrix Potter.

Look out for Dorothy Wilkinson in this video clip.

Half a mile from Coniston Village lies Coniston Water.
One of Ziggie's favourite walks is from her office in the village down to The Boating Centre and then back to the village a different way by Pier Cottage.
By the lake she meets lots of friends, and here Tom takes her rowing on the lake.
You can also hire boats here from the Coniston Boating Centre

Within 3 miles of Coniston lies the famous area of the Tarns, known as "Tarn Hows". A " How" is actually in Lakeland dialect a rocky outcrop, and here Zig "poses" with Wetherlam behind.

For details of this walk please follow this link to www.lakedistrictfordogs.co.uk

From Coniston there is a delightful easy walk through Yewdale to Yewtree Farm, returning past Tarn Hows. Yew Tree Farm is now famous for its "Beatrix Potter" Tearoom, run by Caroline and Sue who serve delicious homemade food.

Ziggie has climbed high into the old spinning gallery to keep a look out for farmer John ! and her friends Pip & Cass.

There is a great walk that takes in Yew Tree Farm - follow this link for details: www.yewtree-farm.com

Winter is on its way - the autumn colours (which have been lovely this year) are coming to an end. We visited some friends today who where staying in one of our cottages at Dixon Ground in Coniston. The children were all dressed for the winter with their warm coats and we played ball for ages in the garden. There is a new bench in the garden which was made locally - its really nice and just the right size for children!

For more information on our holiday cottages at Dixon Ground please follow this link www.coppermines.co.uk

Here we are at Monk Coniston at the head of Coniston Water (if you did not know this is the English Lake District's thrid largest lake - it is about 5.5 miles (9km) long.

It was here on the 4th of January 1967 Donald Campbell was killed attempting to break his own World Water Speed Record. He unforunatley died when his boat Bluebird crashed having just reached a sppend of 296mph. On his previous run he had reached a staggering 328mph!!

This is very famous but if you have not seen it before here is a video clip of the Bluebird.

For more information about Donal Campbell and the Bluebird why not visit the Ruskin Museum in Coniston www.ruskinmuseum.com

With just a smattering of snow on the tops and clear skies we decided we would walk up Coniston Old Man this morning.

New Year is always a popular time for walkers to visit the Lake District and the nice weather had brought plenty of people out onto the fells. We were well prepared with all our winter walking equipment and wrapped up warm against the cold wind. We made ito the top in no time at all, at this time of year you don't sit about for too long on the tops.

Certainly we had worked up a good appetite for our New Years Eve party by the time we got home (I think a long night is in store!)

We took a walk to Coniston Water this afternoon. We were down by the lake and the sun on the water was beautiful. Winter is a brilliant time to visit the Lake District - you can see some amazing sunsets, sunrises and some fantastics effects of the light.

Have a look at this video clip from the top of Coniston Old Man on Christmas Eve

Another beautiful winters day. We had a great walk through Tilberthwaite to Cathedral Cave and back via Yewdale.

There was a light covering of snow it it made the place look really magical.

If you look carefully at the picture you can see that there is ice on Yew Tree Tarn.

For more information on this walk please follow this link www.lakedistrictfordogs.co.uk

We woke up to a suprise this morning - it had SNOWED!!!

We dont usually get much snow down in the village - it normally just covers the tops of the mountains so "Operation Dig The Village Out" was launched with me co-ordinating it all from the bridge in the centre of the village just outside the office.

Now you know the saying "if you want something doing properly it is better to do it yourself" well I had to climb aboard the digger and show them how it should be done. All the roads cleared in no time at all!

No 3 Dixon Ground is one of our holiday cottages just a few minutes walk from Coniston Village. The garden is very pretty and a real sun trap in the afternoon. This is one of my favourit places to sit and watch the walkers pass by on their way to Coniston Old Man.

For more information on No 3 Dixon Ground please follow this link www.coppermines.co.uk

Today we were at Yew Tree Farm for the filming of "Miss Potter" staring Renne Zellweger. We had provided some of the props for the film including a big red wooden cart (look out for it if you watch the film). If you want to see the tailer for the film you can see it below.

For more information about Yew Tree Farm please follow this link: www.yewtree-farm.com

As busy day today! We had to be up early to look after a television crew. We climbed high above the Coppermines Cottages to the old mine buildings and they filmed a piece about the industrial heritage of the area. I sat patiently and waited for them to move on to a cutting-edge interview me but alas they didnt seem to want to do that!

This is the view from Loughrigg Terrace to Grasmere with Helm Crag in the back ground. This was one of William Wordsworth's favourite views. Maybe Ziggie will start composing poetry!

For more information on this walk please follow the following link to www.lakedistrictfordogs.co.uk

Another nice sunny day so we headed off to Great Langdale. In the back ground you can see the famous Langdale Pikes, Pike O'Stickle and Harrison Stickle. This is one of the most popular areas in the Lake District to go walking on the mountains.

If you want to take this walk you can find more information here: www.lakedistrictfordogs.co.uk

Now you might have noticed that our company name is "The Coppermines and Lakes Cottage" - well this is the Coppermines Valley in the background. For over 1500 years copper was mined here and you can clearly see the old road that comes up from the village of Coniston to the mines. We converted the old mine buildings in to four interlocking holiday cottages nearly twenty years ago and they have proved very popular with our guests all year round. In the background is Coniston water which is where "Swallows and Amazons" by Arthur Ransome is based.

Another busy day today. The Lake District is a little quiter now the children have returned to school but with some beautiful autumn weather we diced to walk from Coniston up through Tilberthwaite to Little Langdale and back via Yewdale. It was great and when we joined the old miners road in Little Langdale we bumped to some friends we had not seen for a while so we caught on all the news.

This is Slater's Bridge in Little Langdale. Today the valley is lovely and quite but 200 years ago it would have all been very different. Langdale Village just a short walk from the bridge was the major intersection of all the old pack horse routes carrying goods around the area. With old roads coming from Ravenglass to the west, Whitehaven to the north west, Keswick to the north, Penrith and Carlisle to the north east, Ambleside to the east Hawkshead to the south east and Coniston, Ulverston, Broughton and Barrow in Furness to the south this is where asll the roads crossed. Wow can you imagine all the men gathering here to exchange news and to rest the horses. Slaters Bridge is a typical pack horse bridge crossing the River Brathay. You can tell it is a traditional pack horse bridge since it has no side walls so the horses with their packs could easily cross. Note the steel hand rail is a later addition to aid the humans!

The days are short at this time of year and the weather this morning was too good to miss! No time to head anywhere in the car - we simply just walked out of the house and up onto the hills above the Coppermines Valley. What a view!

Oh yes, I forgot to mention I made it to the top first (here's the proof) but eventually the others all caught up - last one back to the village buys the beers!

The Walna Scar Road is a very old pack horse route that runs from Coniston through to the Duddon Valley. Along the way there are lost of interesting things to see: remains of old mine workings, slate quarrying and shepherds shelters.

We stopped by an old shelter shown here. The weather was beautiful but it is a useful place to remember on a cold wet day!

Gosh summer must be on the way at last! We had a busy morning and I was quite warm so we decided that an ice cream and a swim was in order (this might be the only good weather we get this summer!).

We got to the lake only to discover the ducks had beaten us to it but if you look closely you can see five little ducklings.

We had to go to Grasmere this morning but since the weather was nice we decided to not rush home and instead headed out for a walk. It was quite busy as we walked up through the Easdale Valley and reached Easdale Falls. The waterfalls are lovely and a great place to picnic. We continued higher into the valley and enjoyed a little dip in Easdale Tarn before the big climb on to the fells. Wow what a climb but what do you think of the view? We could se right accross the south Lake District and we could even see Morecambe Bay and Blackpool Tower in the distance. Here we rested for a while before following the ridge over Helm Crag and back down to Grasmere.

We certainly covered a few miles today. We walked out over the Coniston Fells to Dunnerdale and then followed the River Duddon up the valley to Cockley Beck Farm. After stopping for a rest and to admire the view we followed the course of the Roman road over Wrynose Pass to Little Langdale and back to Coniston.

What a day - we went out on the hills and I had a great laugh as we walked accross the open moorland. After a few days of English summer weather it was a little damp underfoot - but hey! - who cares - it was great fun!

Two entries today!!!

A few seconds after the above photo was taken the fun abruptly ended and I was thrown in the beck for a quick wash and scrub!

Ennerdale is probably the least visited of the larger lakes in the Lake District. Situated in the north west of the national park it is a great place to escape the crowds. We alked through the forests beside the lake and then climbed onto Pillar Rock. We were so tired by the time we got to the top we forgot to take a photo but we remembered as we returned to the car so this view shows Ennerdale will Pillar beyond.

Escaping the central Lake District for a day we head east to the Howgills. This line of hills is sandwiched between the Lake District to the west and the Yorkshire Dales to the east. The open rolling scenery is beautiful and remote. We walked all day and hardly saw anyone else.

Ullswater is the second longest lake in the Lake District at seven and a half miles long. On the western shore of the lake is Gowbarrow Park and this is where the daffodils grow that inspired William Wordsworth's most famous poem "Daffodils". After a cruise from Glenridding to Howtown we walked back to Glenridding on the hills to the east of the lake.

This dramatic slate cavern in Little Langdale is a great place to visit - even on a wet day !
Ziggie is here exploring with her friends
Chris Chittel(Eric Pollard from 'Emmerdale')
Phil and
England Cricketer Bruce French

There is a great walk to Cathedral cave on the www.lakedistrictfordogs.co.uk web-site.

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The adventures of Ziggie