Thank you Keswick, but I won't be back

[SpokeyDokey]

The trick is to go up via Ullock Pike and Carl Side.

+1

Especially when the whole lot is covered in ice and snow - can make fantastic round of it and quite strenuous under those conditions (which you've probably done).

 

[Spinney]

+1

Especially when the whole lot is covered in ice and snow - can make fantastic round of it and quite strenuous under those conditions (which you've probably done).

Not in snow, but with a cloud and howling gale on the top! That was nice piccie of the trig point further up the thread - I love the way those icicles form into the wind.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Does the Lakeland 3000 still take place? Used to be a 24 hour race taking in all the 3,000ft summits, starting and finishing at a school in Keswick.

 

[Andy_R]

The Pencil museum had a display of broken pencils a while back, but it was a bit pointless.


I'll get my coat...

Yeah, they just don't seem to draw the same crowds anymore...

 

[Oxo]

Yeah, they just don't seem to draw the same crowds anymore...

Said Hamlet to Ophelia,
I'll draw a sketch of thee.
What kind of pencil shall I use?
2B or not 2B?

By Spike Milligan

 

[potsy]

We've always loved a visit to keswick. Usually out of season, but we've gone plenty of times in the summer too.
Haven't been for a while, but eldest daughter is home and asked to go.
We usually park just outside and have a nice walk in, but due to the inconsiderate parking of others - including quite a few motor homes that looked like they'd been there for the night - we couldn't get a space.
Drove into the centre to the main car park and attempted to pay £5.30 for parking, only the machine wouldn't accept coins. Tried again with my card but it kept cancelling the transaction. It took us 20 minutes to get a machine that would actually take the money!!!
Went to the loo - 40 p for the privilige!!! The lady in front of me used a card to pay for goodness sakes!!- and the space was so small I had to get an awful lot closer to other people than I'd normally choose to in that situation.
Then it cost me £12 for two bags of chips, a pasty, bottle of water and a coke. How can a single pasty cost almost as much as a meal in a weatherspoons?!
And do people planning a holiday to the lakes all go out and buy north face or rab clothes and rucksacks - you know like you buy a bikini if you're going on a beach holiday - or do they own them already?! And do you really need walking boots and a stick to get from the car park to the coffee shop?!
And so many dogs on stretchy leads!!!!
I just didn't enjoy it at all today.
Are there any places that you feel you've outgrown or that have just lost their finish?

I was there too yesterday, no dog or poles and only a mountain warehouse fleece

I said similar things about the price of the loos once they refurbished them last year.

Car parking is extortionate, but it's the same at any touristy place nowadays.

Still my favourite place up there, just, though Buttermere is a close second.

 

[Bromptonaut]

Not in snow, but with a cloud and howling gale on the top! That was nice piccie of the trig point further up the thread - I love the way those icicles form into the wind.

Well remember c1983 leaving lane just above Keswick in sylvan autumn sunshine. On the top it was so blowy I had to crawl on hands/knees into lee of ridge before I could walk forwards.

 

[oldwheels]

North Coast 500 and anywhere in N Scotland or any island with RET. Overrun with tourists and motorhomes. I could not get home last week when I wanted as ferries all fully booked with the B’s. I travel for personal business (ie hospital appointments) and do not feel well disposed to tourists overrunning the place and removing any pleasure about living where I do.

 

[subaqua]

Chester. Biggest city to where I grew up. Hate the place now.

 

[Fab Foodie]

Come up it from the back. Much wilder, quieter, and interesting.

Like many things in life....

 

[Fab Foodie]

North Coast 500 and anywhere in N Scotland or any island with RET. Overrun with tourists and motorhomes. I could not get home last week when I wanted as ferries all fully booked with the B’s. I travel for personal business (ie hospital appointments) and do not feel well disposed to tourists overrunning the place and removing any pleasure about living where I do.

Just so you know, me and @Hill Wimp will be touring the Outer Hebrides in May with Beryl. Tough-titty.

 

[Pale Rider]

Residents moan about students in Durham City, but they have a significant impact on the local economy.

Shops and other service businesses couldn't survive without them.

The tourist towns will be the same - they wouldn't have the same facilities without the visitors' shilling.

 

[Bromptonaut]

In defence of Keswick, somewhere I've been visiting for longer than I can remember, it still has it's good points. It has though changed a bit, not least changing from a May to September place with additions at Easter and October to a year round resort. Was there on Boxing Day 2017 and it was buzzing.

First of all don't be tempted by town centre car parks; go down by the lake.

If you want proper fish and chips try the Old Keswickian just above the Moot Hall. Always done good for us.

 

[Hill Wimp]

Just so you know, me and @Hill Wimp will be touring the Outer Hebrides in May with Beryl. Tough-titty.

View attachment 403681

Plus we will undoubtedly be spending loadsadosh in the local community.

 

[Ianboydsnr]

Never paid for parking in Keswick, plenty of side streets to park, up Helvellyn street, or windybrow avenue, like any tourist place, you need to go where the locals go, chippy up windybrow, to be fair I no longer live there, when I did, Keswick was only busy in summer, it was dead in winter, I live 13miles away in Cockermouth, and only end up in Keswick cycling over Honister or Newlands pass, and ending going via the Borrowdale road.