13th September 2018

There’s a bible that many of our visitors carry with them on the fells, and that will be one of the Wainwright guides. It’s a good analogy because the guidebooks have sold in biblical proportions, more than two million of them since the first of the seven-book Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells series was […]

3rd September 2018

THERE’S a growing campaign to persuade visitors – to the Lakes and elsewhere – to book direct with their chosen accommodation provider. Here at Elterwater Hostel  we can understand and appreciate the need for online booking agencies if you’re looking for the cheapest deal on a city break, or a package holiday overseas. Too much […]

30th August 2018

Parkrun is all about numbers. And we don’t mean the 5k that folk run every Saturday, several of those folk staying with us regularly to run at our local events. It’s an event – habit, cult, trend – that attracts those who are attracted to statistics, and we thought about this while reading the latest […]

13th August 2018

A new promotional film about the Lake District, Reflecting on the Lakes, features poet Tony Walsh on the glories of our landscape. Tony Walsh, known as Longfella, recites his new poem to mark the UNESCO World Heritage Status for the Lake District National Park, with a background film showing the people and the places “up […]

9th August 2018

When a speed limit was brought in on Windermere in 2005, the critics – those who had power boats and wanted high speed water ski-ing – predicted gloom and doom for the tourist industry in the Lake District. The Lake District National Park Authority introduced the speed limit which has since been set for most […]

6th August 2018

We were delighted to present the trophies recently to the winners of a new race at Ambleside Sports…for runners under the age of nine! When we came on board to sponsor the newest event at our oldest and most famous Lakeland traditional sports we had no idea how popular it was going to be. The […]

21st July 2018

The long summer school holidays are  here and it’s time to think about the freedom to roam…especially for children. And even if this glorious weather doesn’t last all summer, we’ll still  delight in seeing youngsters spending as much time as possible outside. Rain is only water, after all. We watch them having fun here with […]

17th July 2018

Book Review They say that history repeats itself. When William Wordsworth published his Guide through the District of the Lakes in the North of England it was a publishing phenomenon. Political problems in Europe meant that adventurers, who might otherwise have done a grand tour of the great cities of Europe, were looking for opportunities […]

4th June 2018

And we mean it, literally, adventures IN the Lakes. After a long winter when the ice climbers were in their element, it’s time for some equally hardy folk to plunge into rather cold water. The Great North Swim this weekend is the flagship event for the increasingly popular open-water swimming, and nowhere has better “facilities” […]

29th May 2018

A sponsorship deal with Elterwater Hostel means a new race for young runners at Ambleside Sports. For the first time, this year there will be an “under-nines” category in the hugely popular Guides races, with our hostel funding ten new trophies. The Guides races are easily viewed by spectators as they follow a direct course […]