Coniston Self Catering Cottages Lake District

Lake District Information

The Lake District is a wonderful place to visit spectacular scenery in abundance whatever the time of Year. weather your looking for a peaceful break, action packed adventure or just a good all round holiday the Lake District will cater to all tastes.

Places To Visit in the Lake District

When you are visiting the Lakes District you will not want to miss a visit to Ambleside, Windermere, Hawkshead, Grasmere or Coniston. All these Places are within a 10 Mile radius, but will each take plenty of time to explore.

Coniston Water in the Lake District

(From Coniston Self Catering Cottages in the Lake District)

Just over 5 Miles in length Coniston Water is the third longest lake in the Lake District. The spectacular backdrop of Coniston Old Man dominates the skyline to the west, while it is sheltered by Grizedale Forest to the East.

Coniston Water and the surrounding area are famous as Arthur Ransome country. Ransome used different locations from the lake and village area for his most famous book Swallows and Amazons

Steam Yacht Gondola (Coniston Water)

(From Coniston Self Catering Cottages in the Lake District)

Gondola cruises the lake daily and with her Victorian elegance is an experience not to be missed. She stops of at the jetty at Brantwood the home of John Ruskin allowing you to visit the house and take in the Gardens and catch a later cruise back.

A stop of at Brantwood also allows you to climb to the summit of Crag Head (750ft, 230m) giving spectacular vies over Coniston Lake and the surrounding Lake District Fells.

Originally built in 1859 she was in service till 1936 until she was left derelict on the shores of Coniston Water. She was rescued and fully restored by the National Trust in 1980.

Coniston Water was the place of the tragic death of Donald Campbell, the famous water speed ace whose craft bluebird was recently found and recovered. Campbell died in 1967 while attempting to break the water speed record.

Arthur Ransome

(From Coniston Self Catering Cottages in the Lake District)

Famed for Lake District Children’s Book Swallows and Amazons 

Born in Leeds in 1884 Arthur Ransome spent summer holidays with his parents in and around the Coniston Area. And in later years was a regular visitor to the Lake District. In his youth he attended a prep school in Windermere. His first job was for a London publisher and for many years he worked has a foreign correspondent for the Manchester Guardian. It was while he was reporting on the Russian Revolution in 1917 that he met and married his second wife - Evgenia Petrovna Shelepina - who at that time was secretary to Leon Trotsky.

He and his wife bought and rented various properties in the Lake District the last being at Hill Top, near Haverthwaite, where they lived from 1963 to 1965.

The actual Lake District locations around Coniston and surrounding area in Swallows and Amazons were never revealed but with a little work Horseshoe Cove, Trout Tarn, Wildcat Island and Rio can all be found.

Arthur Ransome died in 1967, his wife died in 1975 they are both buried in Rusland churchyard, he once described the churchyard as one of the most peaceful places on earth.

John Ruskin and Brantwood House

(From Coniston Self Catering Cottages in the Lake District)

"Ruskin was one of the most remarkable of men, not only of England and our time but of all countries and all times. He was one of those rare men who think with their hearts, and so he thought and said not only what he himself had seen and felt, but what everyone will think and say in the future."
Leo Tolstoy

Poet, Artist and art critic, Ruskin was a great influence on Victorian morality. Born in London and educated at Oxford before travelling the world. He devoted himself to social and economic problems from 1860. Ruskin was responsible for the acceptance of at the time unconventional styles of painting by artists such as William Turner.

Ruskin bought Brantwood his Lake District home on the shores of Lake Coniston in 1871 for the sum of £1500 and lived there till his death in 1900. forgoing the right to be buried in Westminster Abbey he was laid to rest in Coniston Churchyard, where his grave with its ornate locally carved headstone is visited by thousands of people from all over the globe every year.

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