To find out more or to book online visit
www.keswick.org
Castlerigg Stone Circle Few people visit Keswick without
stopping to wonder at Castlerigg Stone Circle. It sits on a low hill to the east of town and is one of Britain’s most impressive prehistoric monuments.
It is one of the earliest stone circles in Britain and is important in terms of both megalithic astronomy and geometry.
No-one is sure what it was built for, though it is believed it was used for ceremonial or religious purposes.
A literary wonderland
Keswick has attracted great poets and artists for centuries and the guest book for one house reads like a Who’s Who of English Literature.
Greta Hall, former home of Lake Poets Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey, is now a family home.
Southey described it as “Perhaps the finest single spot in England” and Coleridge “I question if there be a room in England which commands a view of mountains and lakes and woods superior to that in which I am now writing.”
Its visitors included William & Dorothy Wordsworth, Lord Byron, Keats, Shelley, Sir Walter Scott, Sir George & Lady Beaumont, De Quincey, Dr. Arnold, Sir. John Stuart Mill, Robert Owen, William Wilberforce, Ruskin, Humphrey Davey, Lamb and Hazlitt. More recently, Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon visited Greta Hall as part of their BBC series The Trip.
Keswick is an ideal base to explore the places William Wordsworth lived. It is a short journey west to his childhood home - Wordsworth House in Cockermouth and south to Dove Cottage in Grasmere and Rydal Mount at Ambleside.
Wordsworth became the Poet Laureate when Robert Southey died in 1843. He initially refused the honour, saying he was too old, but he accepted when Prime Minister Robert Peel assured him "you shall have nothing required of you." He kept his word and Wordsworth was the only Poet Laureate not to write any official poetry.
The father of Lakeland Geology
A lesser known but very interesting historical character who lived in Keswick was Jonathan Otley ‘The Father of Lakeland Geology.”
If you take the little alleyway beside Cotswold’s outdoor shop in the Market Square, you’ll come across a flight of stone steps which led the way to Jonathan Otley’s workshop and home. Keswick Civic Society had the steps repaired in 2011.
Courtesy of: Keswick Museum and Art Gallery
There’s a plaque which reads: ‘Here lived Jonathan Otley 1766 -1856 Geologist and Clockmaker. A humble student of nature and science who laboured for his fellows.’
As well as a geologist and clockmaker, he made maps and even invented a rain gauge. Although he sold many of his belongings towards the end of his life, some have survived and can be found in Keswick Museum. He is buried in Crosthwaite Churchyard.
In June and July each year, there is lively street theatre at 7.30pm on Tuesdays. A ten scene trail will reveal more tales of the interesting characters in town. Meet at the Moot Hall!
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