Adventure

By Rachael Parkin Depending on your point of view, snow during your stay in the Lake District can be either a blessing or a curse. For some, a pristine blanket of fresh, glistening snow transforming the mountainous landscape to a sparkling winter wonderland can catapult a holiday into the realms of frozen fantasy. For others, the slightest hint of a snow flurry can send them hurrying for warmth, shelter and a hot chocolate. The prospect of being cut off from the rest of the world by a heavy fall can either become an absolute dream come true or a complete…

For some true solitude amongst vast wide open spaces expand your trip to the Lakes with a visit to one of Cumbria’s stunning beaches. Blessed with mile upon mile of golden sands and with a magnificent mountainous backdrop, Cumbria’s coastline is dramatically under-explored by the millions who visit the Lake District National Park every year. Below are some of the best beaches within easy reach of Coniston and the surrounding area. Each beach is dog-friendly all year round so no one need miss out on what these expansive locations have to offer. Please do remember to check the tide times…

Munro bagging. Bag a Wainwright. Bag that mountain summit. These we have all heard of but there is one more thing that I love to ‘bag’ in the Lake District, and that is the humble tarn. A tarn is defined as a small mountain lake and there are hundreds of them. What’s better is they are often quite high up a mountainside. The rules are simple. Hike up to a tarn, and jump in. You don’t need to do a big swim but you need to at least get your entire body underwater. No, dipping your toes in does not…

By Rachael Parkin If you’re coming to the Lake District for a cottage holiday, chances are it’s because you want to enjoy one of the many serene, shimmering lakes, tarns, meres and waters the area has to offer. We’ve put together a list of some of our favourite lakeside walks from short, wheelchair-friendly strolls to more rugged 10-mile hikes; there are walks below for all ability levels. All these waterside routes feature beautiful lake and mountain vistas with no major hills to tackle and are the perfect way to spend either half an hour or an entire day in this…

By Rachael Parkin Coniston Mountain Rescue answered over 50 call-outs throughout 2018. The calls covered everything from walkers missing in wintery weather, people in need of medical assistance, injured mountain bikers and even stranded dogs. Some callouts required the presence of up to 20 mountain rescuers, all of whom work as unpaid volunteers. And this is just the Coniston team, similar teams are based at Cockermouth, Duddon and Furness, Kendal, Keswick, Kirkby Stephen, Langdale Ambleside, Patterdale, Penrith and Wasdale and together attend to around 500 call-outs every year. Each team consists of highly trained volunteers who are fully prepared to…

I can’t believe it’s been over a year since I’ve been doing these blogs and I have not yet featured one on swimming. I know. It’s ridiculous considering for quite some time I was known as Sean Conway – The Swimmer. It even says that on my Wikipedia page (If someone knows how to change that I’d be ever so grateful) Anyway, living in Coniston and not swimming is like being French and not eating all the baguettes, and when it comes to dipping your toes into the often-icy water there is one particular swim that I love the most.…

Top Spots for Wild Swimming by Rachael Parkin One thing the Lakes District definitely isn’t short of is water. Whether it’s sparkling in a glistening lake, surging down a thundering river or falling out of the sky to try and put a dampener on your day, to holiday in the Lakes is to get wet in the Lakes. And few things are more appealing on a hot summer’s day than a refreshing, cool swim amongst the magnificent scenery of the Lakes. Whether you’re an experienced wild swimmer and looking to do some serious swimming on a picturesque lake or a…

By Rachael Parkin Ordnance Survey (OS) have recently published Britain’s favourite place to start a walk; with Ambleside claiming the top spot for the Lake District, coming in fifth out of the UK as a whole. The survey shows Ambleside as the hub of walking in the Lakes, with more people choosing to start a walk from here than anywhere else in Cumbria. The survey also revealed that other Cumbrian walks scored very highly, with the summits of Scafell Pike and Helvellyn also appearing in the top 10 of the most commonly tread paths. With this in mind, we at…

Explorefromthedoor with Sean Conway – #10 Trouté Diem – Seize the Trout Now when I decided to start this blog series about adventures in and around my home in Coniston, I have to admit it was all adrenalin this, running that, cycling here, canoeing there and all other manor of activities to get your heart racing. Don’t get me wrong. My next blog after this one is probably one of the toughest local challenges I’ve come up with, but for now, I fancied doing something a little more relaxing. OK, a lot more relaxing – fishing. This came about because…

Six Easy Wainwright Fells to Bag on your Holiday by Rachael Parkin If you fancy bragging about bagging half a dozen Wainwrights during your Lake District holiday but don’t feel like your legs are quite up to scaling over 3,000 feet up the dizzying heights of Scafell or Helvellyn and the likes, or if you are coming on holiday with children and are looking for lower, safer summits to conquer without missing out on the spectacular scenery the Lakes has to offer then we’ve put together a list of some the easier, but no less rewarding, fells to climb during…