England’s Lake District

Honister Pass, a half-hour from Keswick, is home to the last working slate mine in Britain. (The famed greenish-grey stone is the stuff shingling London’s Ritz Hotel and Buckingham Palace.) We travel deep down the mine shaft by elevator, then continue along rocky paths, our head lamps guiding us through the blackness. Honister Slate Mine is also home to the country’s first via ferrata climbing adventure. It follows the same route that the early miners used to scale the slate mountainsides, only now there are fixed cables and handy safety harnesses. 

We spend the night at Howe Keld in Keswick, a newly renovated 15-room B&B with airy modern bedrooms and extra-hot bathroom towel bars. We start the next morning with a hearty Cumbrian breakfast of homemade sausage, sautéed mushrooms, grilled tomatoes, scrambled eggs and fry bread (which I now realize is how all bread should be prepared). It’s fuel for our five-hour hike.

We start from the doorstep of the B&B, continue along the lake and then climb from the shoreline to the top of Walla Crag, where we take in the majestic views over Derwentwater. The tumbling Cumbrian Mountains loom in the distance. Dogs and sheep feature largely during our leisurely trek, as do other happy amblers, some stopping for picnics on the sunny slopes.

Getting around the Lake District couldn’t be easier since many towns are within 20 minutes of each other. We take our car on the 500-year-old Windermere Ferry crossing, which seems over almost before it begins. While driving through the snaking Kirkstone Pass, we’re flanked by ancient stone walls as we navigate the hairpin road.

We enjoy a proper afternoon tea service, replete with loose-leaf blends, finger sandwiches and scones and all the clotted cream we could want during our stay at Lindeth Howe Country House Hotel in Bowness-on-Windermere. We’re in the very same posh lounge where Beatrix Potter wrote and illustrated The Tale of Timmy Tiptoes and The Tale of Pigling Bland. She later bought the property for her mother.

Our last stop is Grasmere, once the home of poet William Wordsworth. We visit two of his former residences – Dove Cottage and Rydal Mount – and tour the house-cum-museum. Then we walk the gardens, whereupon a baby deer bounds into a clearing and surprises us. Yet another simple joy in the Lake District.

Amy Rosen writes about food but should probably start writing about exercise. Visit her at thenationalnosh.blogspot.com.

Photos: Amy Rosen (Lead photo)

Getting There:
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