Apart from the occasional pop of a fish, Esthwaite Water was still and silent, a mirror reflecting the autumn fells. A lonely cloud drifting past made me think of Wordsworth. He loved ice skating on this lake in the moonlight with his friends from Hawkshead Grammar School, recalling these happy days in The Prelude: “… for me/It was a time of rapture!/… All shod with steel/ We hissed along the polished ice … So through the darkness and the cold we flew … “
By the time of our half-term visit in late October the ospreys that live here in spring and summer had already taken off on their arduous journey to West Africa, flying continuously for around 13 days and covering 3,000 miles. But there were flocks of geese, charms of goldfinches, and thrushes carbo-loading berries from the ancient bowl-shaped yew next to the bell tent where we were staying, on the lawn of YHA Hawkshead.
The main hostel building is a beautiful Regency mansion with an ironwork verandah. It has views of Esthwaite Water and is surrounded by beech woodland and an arboretum of impressive trees, including giant redwoods. In addition to bell tents, other outdoor accommodation options are tipis, camping pods, and an Arctic cabin named Cockerhoop.
The hostel is far from the madding crowd and not especially well-served by public transport: most of our fellow hostellers had arrived by car. If you travel there by train and bus, as we did, it seems wisest to seek out things to do in the locality, though if you don’t mind a layover at the Ambleside Bus Interchange you can get the hourly 505 there from Hawkshead village, then pick up a bus to another part of the Lakes.
On arrival we obtained copies of the very useful Ordnance Survey/YHA walking maps from hostel reception. Originally produced for the Festival of Walking, all three of them gave us ideas for things to do.
One was a seven-mile circular walk to Tarn Hows, a picturesque artificial lake; another a tour of Hawkshead village, about 20 minutes’ walk from the hostel along public footpaths through fields, a good alternative to the route along the road. It’s a pretty, largely-pedestrianised village with many interesting buildings, including the church and the Courthouse. The well-stocked Co-op Food provides supplies for self-catering.
I enjoyed visiting Wordsworth’s old school on the last day of the season before it closed for the winter. When he was a pupil, between 1778 and 1787, it was in its heyday, and very popular because of a progressive curriculum that included mathematics. The rules were strict and the hours long, but Wordsworth was happy there, spending his leisure hours fell-walking and horse-riding, as well as skating.
In 1905 the children’s author, botanist, and conservationist Beatrix Potter made her home at Hill Top in the nearby village of Near Sawrey. Walking there from the hostel, you can imagine coming across her bent over her sketchpad: she based her illustrations for The Tale of Mr Jeremy Fisher on studies of Esthwaite Water’s frogs and other wildlife. Hill Top is now owned by the National Trust. It has an atmospheric garden with mossy apple trees and inside you can spot many objects that appeared in her books, such as the plaster dolls’ house food and tiny golden birdcage from The Tale of Two Bad Mice.
A highly recommended walk takes you from Near Sawrey up to Moss Eccles Tarn, where Beatrix Potter and her husband used to go boating among the water lilies. It’s a tranquil spot surrounded by glades of silver birch and with great views in every direction. In season, mini bus route number 525 run by Mountain Goat takes you from Hill Top back to Hawkshead village.
YHA Hawkshead is right on the doorstep of Grizedale Forest, an expanse of coniferous and deciduous woodland which offers many opportunities for exploration and outdoor pursuits. As we came over the hill from Stony Brow we heard whooping and suddenly there were people whizzing past through the treetops. The explanation was that there’s a Go Ape! near the Visitor Centre. We enjoyed walking the trails and looking at the many nature-themed sculptures that have been gradually added since 1977.
Another day we took a different route through Grizedale that led to the shores of Coniston Water and a magnificent view of the Old Man. Nineteenth century artist and critic John Ruskin’s lakeside house Brantwood is open to visitors. It contains not only his collection of art, but more than 2,000 mineral specimens, and a modern lithophone (stone xylophone) that has been played by Dame Evelyn Glennie.
There is a moss garden in the Japanese style and an area Ruskin called his ‘Zig-Zaggy’, where the terracing is meant to recall the form of the Purgatorial Mount in Dante’s Divine Comedy, with a planting scheme based on the seven deadly sins. A modern fern garden has been planted in memory of Victorian botanist W J Linton, who lived at Brantwood before Ruskin. There’s a nice story behind the ice house: Ruskin wanted to make ice available to provide his less well-off neighbours with cold compresses when they were feverish.
If you don’t want to walk back, you can take a boat from the jetty at Brantwood to Coniston village, and from there the 505 bus to Hawkshead. The jetty is served by both the Coniston Launch Company and the National Trust’s Steam Yacht Gondola.
We also spent a day in Keswick, where the bright red acers and golden maples in Fitz Park near the YHA were as beautiful as ever and the radio-controlled boats in Hope Park still the best fun to be had for a pound.
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