Yesterday, I ran from Hawkshead Hill, down to the northernmost point of Coniston Water, along the eastern side of the lake, through Nibthwaite to just short of Lowick, and back up via Oxen Park, Satterthwaite and Grizedale, before coming to a very welcome stop at the Sun Inn in Hawkshead for lunch and some by then much-need liquid refreshment. If you’re curious, you can see the route here. It covered 19.1 miles… yes, you read that right and I did run it all, albeit fairly sluggishly in a time of 3 hours, 7 minutes and 45 seconds (there were lots of hills!). I’m not going mad, just in training for a marathon.
But what I would like to highlight is the tranquillity of it all. It was a Bank Holiday Monday, the weather was glorious and I was running from around 9am to just after midday. In all, though, I saw very few cars on the roads. In fact, as I went down the eastern side of Coniston, I would estimate that I saw more cyclists (perhaps a dozen or so) than I saw cars. It was only when I got up towards Grizedale (and closer to Hawkshead) that it got much busier and, even then, it wasn’t like there were hoardes of tourists.
In short, don’t believe it when people tell you that the Lake District is always heaving with tourists. You don’t get much more perfect days when the bluebells are out in full force and there’s barely a cloud in the sky. And I was in a very central part of the southern Lakes (perhaps helped by its inaccessibility relative to other places in the area, shielded as it is by Coniston Water on one side and Windermere on the other). Sure, if you head to Bowness Bay (on the much busier side of Windermere) in the height of season on a lovely day like yesterday, then there will mostly likely be crowds. But get off the beaten path a little and you will find plenty of peace and quiet – even in high season.
Paul Johnson is a Director at Kendal Holiday Cottages Ltd. which offers luxury self-catering accommodation between the Lake District and the Yorkshire Dales.
