Keswick

17-20 April 2026

We always visit Castlerigg Hall around this time of year, and this year is no exception.  It is probably our (well, D's) favourite site at the moment.

Friday

We arrived just after the earliest arrival time of 1pm and settled into pre booked pitch 24, which we have been on several times before.

After lunch D had a look at the damp we discovered last trip but it is not obvious where water is getting in.  The seal around the front window, maybe?  Will try adding some sealant on the next trip and see what happens.

Then we headed down the hill into Keswick passing goats and sheep on the way.

Traditional cute lamb pics

We had dinner in the Dog and Gun - Hungarian goulash for D and hunters chicken for J.  Amazingly (given the great selection of beers on tap) this is a Greene King (urgh) pub and we took advantage of their buy one get one free offer on their app.  We were surprised to discover we got the more expensive one free!

We also had a drink in the Wainwright Inn and the Keswick Craft Beer.

On the way back to the caravan we stopped off in the site campers lounge, which is almost always empty.  Not sure why - nice and warm, comfy seats and lots of books and games.  It used to be a restaurant and we had a really nice steak there a long time ago.

Saturday

The forecast today was for showers but we managed to miss them as we headed back in to Keswick, taking the longer, more scenic route via Castlehead wood this time.

The view from Castlehead

We did pretty much the same as the day before, except dinner, which we had in the caravan - a very nice hotdog from a visiting van at the site. followed by a night in listening to music and playing scrabble (J won!) We picked up a really cool bag for life from Booths and it cost £6!  Too expensive to use?

Sunday

The best day, weatherwise.

D got up very early and went for a walk, taking in White Side, Raise and Stybarrow Dodd.  J thought it might be a bit too strenuous so she had a leisurely morning in and around the caravan.

In the afternoon  we headed back down into Keswick, taking the easy route along the road this time, but we didn't stay out late.

Not sure where this came from, it was waiting for us when we got back to the caravan...

Sunset from our pitch

Monday

Quite a long journey home due to an accident (we think) on the M6 near Preston.

Coming soon...

Next trip will be early in May but not sure where yet.

Coniston

27-30 March 2026

Our third trip of the year, but first blog of the year.  No excuse, just laziness.  Our aim this year is to go away in the caravan at least once in every month and with this late March trip we are just about still on target to do this.  We couldn't get away any earlier in March due to other commitments.

Friday

We last visited the Coniston CAMC site  about two years ago.  We have had many good trips here but a problem with the site is that we often have trouble selecting a pitch without arguing - there are too many to choose from.  No arguments this time, though, we could see our favourite pitch 64 was free as we checked in.

A bit of a break with tradition after setting everything up.  Instead of heading straight to the nearest pub after lunch we had a hot dinner in the caravan...and then headed straight to the nearest pub!

There are three in  Coniston that we like and we had a pint in each of them.  The Black Bull, the Sun and the Yewdale.  There is now a fourth, but more of that later.

We didn't stay out late.

Saturday

The plan today was to get the launch from Coniston to Brantwood, then walk over the hill into Hawkshead and get a bus back.

We knew there were no buses running from Hawkshead to Coniston due to a road closure, so we would have to get a bus from Hawkshead into Ambleside and then another back to Coniston, but we went ahead anyay.  Only to find when we turned up at the jetty that the launch wasn't stopping at Brantwood as the jetty was underwater.  Undaunted, we walked around the end of the lake and found another route into Hawkshead, passing the new to us Coniston Inn on the way.

In Hawkshead we had an eye wateringly expensive sandwich in the newly refurbished Kings Arms, which we liked in spite of the expensiveness, and then had a couple of drinks in Kittchen, which is the only cat pub we know of.  It stinks of cats and  has more than its fair share of one star reviews but we really like it.  Friendly cats, great beer and great music (think 60s garage rock)...what is not to like.  We especially like the bar rules.

We would have stayed longer if we could have got a direct bus back to Coniston.  We ended up with an  hour and a half to kill in Ambleside, which is a bit too touristy for us, although the Lakes Brew taproom is a nice new addition.

We didn't stay out in Coniston and headed straight back to the caravan. After walking 10 miles that day we needed a quiet night in! 

Sunday

The worst day, weatherwise.  It rained all morning but we managed to get out in the afternoon and had a roast dinner in the Yewdale Inn.

Secret DJ is an app that allows you to control the music that is playing in some pubs, and we were quite excited to find that the Coniston Inn is one of them, so we decided to pay it a visit.  It's a nice pub and we will return in the future, but we didn't get to select any music because it was too noisy and the app wouldn't work anyway!

A couple of pics for Half Man Half Biscuit fans.

CSI Ambleside

No crime here, thanks to McAlliog

Monday

We gave the caravan a clean before heading for home and discovered some dreaded damp around the front window.  There is a crack near the corner of the window which we are hoping won't be too difficult to seal, it just depends how much damage has been done.  We will have a look next trip.

Coming soon...

Castlerigg Hall, Keswick mid April.

Garstang

7-9 Feb 2026 

Bolton-le-Sands

 16-18 Jan 2026