Coal Yeat Holiday Cottages – the quieter edge of the Lakes

Closest to Coal Yeat is the typical northern market town of Ulverston, providing interesting, diverse and friendly shopping options for both local and visitor needs. The centre of Ulverston is much unchanged with shops and inns lining the cobbled Market Street, from which alleys and ginnels spiral off. The streets lend themselves to leisurely exploration, browsing the independent shops (including butcher, ironmonger, chemist and fishmonger), viewing the galleries, visiting the attractions and indulging in coffee or lunch. Ulverston is home to lots of great pubs and inns serving bar food and locally brews. There are also a great choice of cafes and restaurants where you can choose from Thai to Indian, Italian to Mexican and great steak in both Base at Ford Park and Bay Horse at the canal foot,

Ulverston does love a good festival; there are festivals for walking, music, folk, a flag day and a Lantern Festival to list but a few. With a different celebration each month, be sure to check what's on during your visit. Arts also feature strongly in Ulverston life; there is a wonderful old cinema (complete with ice cream break) and the Coronation Hall, now known as ‘The Coro’ is a fabulous theatre, with weekly performance of plays, comedy, music and opera. 

Ulverston is also home to the Buddhist community at Conishead Priory (café, walks and a wonderful temple), the Quaker centre of Swarthmoor Hall (open to the public), the Sir John Barrow Monument on Hoad Hill (circle your way to the very top on a Sunday when the flag flies), the Laurel and Hardy Museum (Stan Laurel was born in Ulverston in 1890) and a canal (claimed to be the shortest, deepest, widest and straightest canal in the)

In Ulverston you will also find large supermarkets Booths, Marks and Spencer foodhall and Aldi, leisure/pool facilities and a golf club.

About 20 minutes drive from Coal Yeat is the picture-perfect village of Cartmel.  Thanks to Simon Rogan's Michelin starred L'Enclume (three Michelin stars) and Rogan & Co (one star), Cartmel has almost single-handedly been transformed into a pilgrimage destination for foodies and celebrities.
This chic destination is characterised by the most delightful architecture of traditional lime washed and stone-built houses, shops and pubs. Cartmel is centred around a delightful square , with a maze of lanes and bridges crossing a quaint river, all of which house delightful craft, gift vintage and food shops.

Cartmel is also home to the impressive, Norman priory church, a racecourse and to the original Sticky Toffee Pudding shop. Two miles away in Cark-in-Cartmel is the historic home and impressive gardens  of Holker Hall.  A complete delight to explore and lose yourself, in the house, grounds and deer park are all open to the public and the estate arranges an differing events throughout the year from Christmas Markets to spooky Halloween trails.

A short drive from Coal Yeat is Coniston Water, the fifth largest lake (by area) in the Lake District. On the lake's pretty eastern shore is Brantwood, the house and gardens of Victorian art philanthropist John Ruskin. A wonderful place to visit or just admire the view from the ‘terrace’ café. On the eastern shores there are lot of bays and access to the lake for picnics and swims.

Coniston village is a great start point for simply getting out and about and exploring the fells, mountains and water. In Coniston is the Ruskin Museum which celebrates both Ruskin water speed fiend Donald Campbell, who broke four world water speed records on the lake in the 1950s but was sadly killed, trying to set another one. Take a slower trip on the lake on either the steam yacht Gondola by Coniston Launch or hire boats, canoes or paddleboards from Coniston Boating Centre.

Four miles east of Coniston is the quaint, but very popular village of Hawkshead. Famous for its 500 year old church and ancient grammar school where William Wordsworth spent  time as a pupil. Two interlinking squares lead off to a maze of little alleyways; the buildings are an eclectic mix of stone, timber and whitewash, many with eaves overhanging the pavements and are home to gift shops and sweet tea shops. Then two miles further on is Hill Top, the 17th century farmhouse Beatrix Potter bought in 1905.  

From Hawkshead you can walk, or drive to the unique, sedate beauty spot of Tarn Hows.  Or for high adrenalin carry onto Grizedale Forest, with its mix of sculpture/art walking trails, graded biking routes and the exhilarating GoApe high wire adventure course.

About 12 miles from Coal Yeat is Windermere, the largest body of water in England - measuring 10.5 miles long, one mile wide and 219 feet at its deepest point. Take the A590 from Greenodd to the lake's southern end at Newby Bridge and you’ll pass many of the tourist atttacttions our area has to offer.

Firstly the main station for the Lakeside and Haverthwaite Railway and then the Lakeland Motor Museum.
A few minutes from Newby Bridge, on the western side of the lake, is Lakeside. Home to Lakes Aquarium and it’s here where Windermere ‘steamers’ sail to Bowness-on-Windermere and Ambleside, unless of course you opt for the train and boat combination to take you up the lake.

Another mile on from Newby Bridge is the popular Fell Foot, a National Trust park with full lake access, café and rowing boats hire and home to the infamous Park Run every Saturday.

The A592, follows the east side of the lake, past some of the most magnificent lake fronted houses (viewed best from the boat trip), and takes you to one of the busiest spots:  Bowness-on-Windermere.  It is the hub for Windermere Lake Cruises and where people come year-round to enjoy the lake for sailing and watersports, or just to relax and enjoy the jovial party atmosphere of the area and the town’s delightful setting.

Just outside Bowness is Blackwell, the Arts and Crafts House, a Grade I listed house where almost all of the original decorative 1900 features have survived.

Continue further to the Windermere, Ambleside and Grasmere – all unique but with the same tourist slant. Perfect for some, others idea of hell.  Your choice….

Head west this time and you arrive at the small, still predominantly local town, of Broughton-in-Furness with a butchers, unique petrol station, bakers and three pubs, including the popular real ale pub Manor Arm (proudly supporting a ‘no food here’ sign). Take the short drive into the stunning, and relatively untouched Duddon Valley, an area much loved Wordsworth he was taken write wrote 34 sonnets about the area. 

Follow the river, and it’s spectacular gorges and jacuzzi pools, towards the northern end of the valley and a T-junction at Cockley Beck. Turning west here takes you over the stunning hairpin bends of Hardknott pass into Eskdale, or select east for a journey over the equally windy Wrynose Pass into Little Langdale.