Keswick

Keswick is sometimes referred to as The Queen of Lakeland with its fantastic setting between Derwentwater, Blencathra and Skiddaw. Keswick is now a major tourist town, with more B&B and guesthouses per head of population, than anywhere else in England.

Keswick is the favoured town for climbers and serious fell walkers. It remains very busy in the summer months and is stunning to walk around in the winter months.

Keswick’s oldest building is Crosthwaite church – the foundations are dated from 1181, but most of the materials of the building are from the fourteenth-century or later.

Keswick was originally a small market town, which became very prosperous when the mining industry arrived in the sixteenth-century. Engineers were brought in from Germany to find copper, lead, silver and iron in the surrounding hills and valleys.

Interestingly the locals treated them suspiciously, which forced the Germans to live on Derwent Island. However, German surnames can still be found amongst the locals of today. Black lead mined in Borrowdale has made the town famous – this can be seen at the Cumberland Pencil Company.