December 29th, 2009
We’ve always thought that The Larches is in a great position at the foot of Whinlatter Forest but now we know that it’s also just minutes away from what is recognised as one of the region’s principal new sporting attractions – the Altura and Quercus MTB mountain bike trails, which start at the Forest Visitor Centre. The map below shows the position of the cottage just below the start of the MTB trails.
According to a report in the News and Star (28 December 2009) 12,000 people have tackled the new 7½ km Quercus trail and 10,000 have done the longer 19 km Altura route.
Bikes for renting are available at the Centre and there are opportunities also for coaching. There are plenty of other biking routes in the vicinity too, both on bridleways and on local roads. Books in The Larches’ library provide good examples and there is room to store bikes securely in the garage.
Oh yes and there’s one further point we should add – The Larches is only about 200 meters off the C2C cross country bike route, if you want to try out some sections before doing the whole route!
Tags: "Altura Trail", "Mountain biking", Thornthwaite, Whinlatter
Posted in Local news, The Larches | No Comments »
November 24th, 2009
Judging by the emails I keep getting for winter holidays in foreign places, you’d think that we never see the sun in the UK. Yes it has been bad these last ten days in the Lakes with so much rain, but it didn’t stop our weekend party of friends enjoying good local walks in Whinlatter Forest; and to the top of Sale above Bassenthwaite where we had marvelous 360° views of the north-west fells.
The previous week though was something very different. Breakfast was on a sunny Belvedere terrace and over several days we had amazingly clear light, ideal for walks and photography. The three photos below show how the views from the Belvedere of Skiddaw and the marshes have changed so dramatically over the course of just 10 days – as sun was followed by continuous rain to create a new lake on the marshes!
Tags: "self-catering accommodation", accommodation, Seldom Seen, Thornthwaite, Thornthwaite accommodation
Posted in Belvederes, Environment, Local news, The Larches | No Comments »
November 23rd, 2009
It’s usually docile, slinking its way without fuss through the marshes to Bassenthwaite and beyond. But this last week the River Derwent has shown another very different and violent face.
With unprecedented rainfall of over 300 mm in 24 hours last Thursday in Borrowdale, the sheer volume of water pouring off already sodden fells could no longer be contained. Bridges, walls, trees, cars were swept aside as raging waters spread across fields and dykes, raced down streets and wrecked houses in their path.
Most of the national news stories have shown the damage, destruction and despair caused downstream in Cockermouth and Workington, but Keswick and the surrounding villages have had their share of heartache too as the photos below show.
Shops and houses have been flooded, people made homeless, roads closed and at least one bridge over Newlands Beck has collapsed at Little Braithwaite. The wide flood plain of the marshes has taken the brunt of the storm waters and turned Derwentwater and Bassenthwaite into one huge long lake (see Photo above and Nos 3 and 5), but the forecast of more heavy rain this week could bring further misery. Fortunately The Larches and Seldom Seen have been largely unaffected, though there was spillage of surface water onto the road as the gulleys had not been regularly cleared.
Rainfall in the area has been higher than ever recorded anywhere in Britain. Important bridges downstream in Workington and elsewhere have been smashed and inspections of more than 1800 bridges in Cumbria could bring further closures. Inevitably all this raises questions about whether this calamity to hit North West Cumbria is the result of wider worldwide climate change.
Posted in Environment, Local news | 4 Comments »
October 18th, 2009
It was interesting to see Keswick in the news again last week as one of the towns in the country most actively engaged in supporting the Fair Trade movement. The Guardian article Lakeside shopping (10 October) in its special feature Section “a positive change: Celebrating the Fairtrade Foundation” described how nearly 300 bodies including hotels, shops and cafes in Keswick have signed up to providing Fair Trade drinks, food and other items as a way of helping poor farmers and producers out of poverty.
There’s also a readers’ resources area and a useful graph in the Section showing the growth of the Fair Trade movement in the UK over the last 15 years. Total Fair Trade sales are up from £2.7 million in 1994 to £712.6 million in 2008, of which bananas now represent £184 million and coffee £137 million. It’s still a small part of this billion pounds sector, but a very encouraging development.
At The Larches we provide Fair Trade tea for visitors on arrival and we’re exploring how we can obtain introductory packs of Fair Trade coffee. More information about the very successful local campaign is on the Keswick Fair Trade website.
Posted in Environment, Local news, The Larches | No Comments »
September 23rd, 2009
This last weekend’s been a memorable day for Keswick and Cumbria as the town has been host for the first Commonwealth Mountain and Ultra Distance Championships. It’s a fitting place to kick off the push to include fell running in World athletics and the Olympics as the world’s first organised fell race took place in Grasmere in 1850.
The town was host to many new faces and Latrigg, high above the town, the best place to watch the unfolding excitement. Runners raced out of Fitz Park, crossed the bridge over the A66 and then climbed the steep routes over Latrigg and – for the uphill only events – took the long path up to Skiddaw (931 metres).
Fell running is a great sport and exacting too! Full details of the runners and times can be found on the Commonwealth Championships website, with KW Chemweno from Kenya winning both the Skiddaw uphill only and Latrigg up and down races in the fantastic times of 50.42 minutes and 47.55 minutes respectively. There are excellent pictures of the participants on the Woodentops website; and more details of the event in the Keswick Reminder (18 September 2009).
Not to be outdone we will be including a new section on the website with details of easy fell running routes from The Larches. These will include the Figure of 8 run up Comb Beck (3.9 km and 212 metres ascent), the Marshes circular via Braithwaite (7 km and 100 metres ascent) and the Barrow circular (4.15 km and 332 metres ascent). Watch out for details for an easy introduction to fell running!
Tags: "Lake District walks", Lake District cottage, Lake District walks Latrigg, Thornthwaite
Posted in Local news, The Larches, Walking | No Comments »
We’ve always thought that The Larches is in a great position at the foot of Whinlatter Forest but now we know that it’s also just minutes away from what is recognised as one of the region’s principal new sporting attractions – the Altura and Quercus MTB mountain bike trails, which start at the Forest Visitor Centre. The map below shows the position of the cottage just below the start of the MTB trails. 
Bikes for renting are available at the Centre and there are opportunities also for coaching. There are plenty of other biking routes in the vicinity too, both on bridleways and on local roads. Books in The Larches’ library provide good examples and there is room to store bikes securely in the garage.
