Christmas in Cumbria

The Troutbeck Valley, in England's Lake District (Cumbria)

Greetings from Ledbury, where we've not long returned from spending Christmas in The Lake District.

Goodness only knows why it's taken 16 years for me to return to this incredibly beautiful part of England. I first visited Cumbria back in 1986, for just a couple of days; I can't even remember where I stayed but it was probably in Windermere. Then, in 2009, Kevin and I were in the region with friends as they were all doing the Coast to Coast cycle route from Whitehaven to Sunderland. Again, we only had a day or two to explore prior to the cycling commencing, but both of these brief visits were enough for me to decide I wanted to return some day.

I suppose the Lake District is far enough away from Surrey to make it more of an expedition. Of course we've driven further on many occasions, with multiple trips to various parts of Scotland, but somehow we haven't managed to get back to the countryside made famous by literary luminaries such as Wordsworth and Beatrix Potter. However, now that we're in Herefordshire it's not such a great distance; the 300km journey up to Troutbeck took about four hours, not counting an hour or so for a lunch stop in the very pleasant and well-to-do town of Knutsford in Cheshire. Oh boy - there is some money there! I kept thinking it was the Cheshire equivalent of Harrogate in Yorkshire, with its many eateries and high-end boutiques.

The businesses of Knutsford in Cheshire went all out with their Christmas decorations!

Wallop, in Knutsford:
'Eatery * Drinkery * Tomfoolery' 🤣

See, now this is just one of the reasons I love England.
Stopped by chance in Knutsford for lunch, stumbled across this!

Gaskell Memorial Tower in Knutsford, Cheshire. 
Elizabeth Gaskell was a former resident, and she based her novel Cranford on the town

 

In the fading daylight we arrived at our cottage in the little village of Troutbeck, about 10 minutes' drive from Windermere. The village consists of a series of tiny hamlets, perched on the hillside. Some of the dwellings are very old indeed, but others are new-builds (as ours was), constructed at least partially in the style of traditional local dwellings, in local stone. It's clear that a good percentage of the houses in Troutbeck operate as holiday accommodation and I suspect the permanent population is very small.

Applethwaite Cottage in Troutbeck, above Lake Windermere

We made very good use of the wood-burner during our five days in Troutbeck

Room with a view:
Actual view from our cottage sitting room in Troutbeck, Cumbria

View from our little garden area in Troutbeck,
the hills turning incredible shades of purple in the morning light

After many months of almost unrelenting grey skies and rain, the weather gods were smiling on us and the entire time we were away it was dry, cold and sunny.

On Christmas Eve we drove down to Windermere to explore the town, making the most of the limited trading hours before everything closed down for the public holidays. The anti-capitalist in me was pleased to see that quite a few of the stores and restaurants had already ceased trading for the festive season, probably a sensible decision given that there were relatively few tourists around. I say this with a good dose of cheek, given that I took advantage of one particular shop being open by purchasing a fabulous pair of lace-up boots on sale!

We were lucky to get an outside table in the town's most popular café, because even at this subdued time of year people queue to get a seat! The coffee was acceptable, but the pastries and cakes were superb.

Sunrise on our first morning in Troutbeck, Christmas Eve

The little town of Windermere, where they take their Christmas decorations seriously!

Windermere has lots of pretty houses

Such were the size of the pastries consumed that we didn't require lunch, and after stopping at a local supplier to supplement the cottage's store of firewood we returned to the cottage to change into walking boots. We tripped across fields and hills, down to Jesus Church where I was very happy to discover - completely by accident - that the stained glass east window, behind the altar, was Pre-Raphaelite! It was dedicated in 1873, having been jointly designed by Edward Burne-Jones, William Morris and Ford Madox Brown. 

The existing church structure was built in 1736, although there was a previous church on the site as early as 1506 and some of the older building's features remain. It's technically a chapel rather than a church, partly because of its diminutive size but apparently also because it does not have a tabernacle.

We walked across rolling hills and gurgling streams to reach Jesus Church

Jesus Church, just down the hill from our cottage in Troutbeck, The Lake District

The Pre-Raphaelite window in Jesus Church, Troutbeck.
It was designed jointly by Edward Burne-Jones, William Morris and Ford Madox Brown

Cemetery with a view: the churchyard of Jesus Church in Troutbeck

Late afternoon sun strikes the tops of trees
- view from our rental cottage front door as we returned from Jesus Church
(Troutbeck, Cumbria) 

Because we choose to have our formal Christmas celebration on 24 December (in line with Scandinavian tradition), we had booked a table months ago at one of the two local pubs, about a 15-minute walk from the cottage along a short section of road and then a lengthy section of rocky paths. Armed with torches in the pitch dark of late afternoon we made our way to The Queen's Head. Our meal was adequate but not great; for some reason we were seated in splendid isolation at the back of the pub in a booth, despite there only being a few diners in the main part of the dining area, and our server didn't seem inclined to encourage us to order dessert... so we didn't! 

After another bracing 15-minute torch-lit walk back to the cottage with stars blazing above us in an inky black sky unpolluted by light, we stoked up the fire, finished off the bottle of Prosecco we'd opened prior to setting out for dinner and cracked open the panettone we'd brought with us from Ledbury.

Cheers!
Kevin enjoying a beer at The Queen's Head in Troutbeck on Christmas Eve

Christmas Day dawned brilliantly sunny once again and after a slap-up, leisurely breakfast we made the most of the weather by doing a two-hour ramble which afforded us views of Lake Windermere a little further along the Troutbeck Valley. Given everybody else was sitting down to their Christmas dinners we only encountered a couple of people along our route.

Then it was home to prepare our traditional, weirdly-timed, too-late-for-lunch-but-too-early-for-dinner Christmas Day meal, which we usually sit down to at around 4pm. As always the cooking was accompanied by my Christmas playlist. I'd been saddened to hear of Chris Rea's death just a couple of days before, as I'd been a fan since his first hit Fool If You Think It's Over (1978). Over the years I'd had a few of Chris's albums. He had a very distinctive, gravelly voice and by all accounts was a down-to-earth chap. Of course, at this time of year, no festive playlist is complete without his superb crowdpleaser, Driving Home for Christmas.

Kevin and Yours Truly, with Lake Windermere in the background, on Christmas Day
- in Troutbeck, Cumbria

Teeny-tiny ferns growing in between layers of stone
- dry stone wall, Troutbeck

*sigh*
I do love a bit of moss! It grows in abundance along many of the Lake District's traditional dry stone walls

Late morning shadows above Lake Windermere on Christmas Day

Another babbling brook in Troutbeck, Lake District - on Christmas Day

Green, gold and russet - the colours of the Lake District on a sunny day in winter

Everything is still spectacularly green, even as far north as The Lake District.
It's been a very mild winter thus far

We couldn't believe our luck, but Boxing Day was yet another gloriously sunny day. We set out late morning armed with thermos, sandwiches and mince pies, undertaking a fairly strenuous hike to Wansfell Pike which wound relentlessly uphill for 2.5km (!), with icy patches becoming ever more treacherous as we neared the summit. 

I was glad we hadn't left it any later in the day to set off because as we ate our lunch on the peak and then headed back down to Troutbeck, at least a hundred walkers and their dogs arrived in a steady stream. Clearly everybody was determined to walk off the excesses of their Christmas Day feasts.

It reminded me why we nearly always choose to visit popular tourist spots off-season; I recalled with a shudder our 2009 trip to the Lake District when we made the mistake of driving through the town of Windermere - there were, quite literally, crowds of people walking four or five abreast on the narrow footpaths and spilling onto the road. My understanding is that the number of tourists has increased dramatically since that time, so one can only imagine the throng in the summer months. The horror!

One of the stiles we clambered over on our Boxing Day walk up to Wansfell Pike

Spectacular views of hills and valleys above Troutbeck and Ambleside,
from the summit of Wansfell Pike on Boxing Day

Lake Windermere sparkling under low winter sun on Boxing Day
- taken from the summit of Wansfell Pike

And then, sadly, our time in the Lake District was at an end.

On the morning of departure we were wishing we'd booked five or six nights instead of just the four, and that was due in no small part to the weather obviously. Had it rained every day we probably would have been more than ready to pack up and leave. Overall I was very happy with the accommodation I'd selected, and particularly its quiet location. We are already thinking about returning, maybe next time in early spring or late autumn - hopefully early / late enough to avoid the worst of the peak tourist season.

Unfortunately we hit terrible traffic on the return journey to Ledbury and it took more than six hours to reach home. We really had enjoyed a charmed five days in the Lake District, the contrast made all the more stark as with every mile we drove south, the skies became greyer and darker, eventually turning to rain.

Sunrise, viewed from the little garden area of our rented cottage in Troutbeck

Myself and Kevin enjoying the gorgeous green hills of Troutbeck, just outside Windermere

Swoon!
Just look at that golden colour on the hills opposite our rental cottage 
- just before sunset in Troutbeck, Cumbria

Well, it's New Year's Eve at the time of writing - my least favourite 'holiday' and it's highly likely that by the time midnight ushers in 2026, I will be tucked up in bed asleep. Still, there's some chance we might get a flurry of snow this week so... fingers crossed!

I do hope 2026 holds many wonderful things for all of us. 

Until next time,

- Maree  xo