Hardwater backlash over £300 million plus to help freshwater Mussels

Facebook campaign and MP protest after United Utilities mixes water supplies.....Read on as Lakestay raises concerns...

Cumbrian Plant Invasion...

Imagine if you will a plant that can cause cancer and is rich in cyanide. It is a plant which has gradually taken over vast areas of one of our most popular National Parks. Its foliage strangles upland grass growth reducing the productivity of pasture for fell farmers.

Yet man appears to do little to limit the spread of this plant. The plant in question is of course bracken.

Mist Below...

Dramatic inversion below Red Pike caught in superb picture by @adrianstrand

Child Labour in Cumbrian Mines

Life was cheap as coal was hewn under the Irish Sea..Learn more at our web site

The Real Bluebird

The Roman Fort on
the mountaintops

Truly magnificent setting for this Roman fort in the mountains...find out more at our Romans in Cumbria page.

Learn to Speak Cumbrian?

Find out what it means to be Gattered and the many other dialect Cumbrian words that hark back to the days when the Vikings were the main farmers in the Lakeland dales. Such words as Knock and knash, neb, mush and scran are just some of those explained on this Dialect Dictionary web site.

Foxhunting in the Lakes..

MPs brought an end to John Peel's sport in February 2005. Follow this link to find out more about the Lakeland hunting packs and to hear John Peel's song.

Planning Puzzle at Rydal

Locals and visitors have been puzzled how the Lake District Planning Board approved plans for this new build in idyllic Rydal. Just a short walk from where poets Wordsworth and de Quincey stayed (Fox Ghyll) We can only guess what William would have said!

Time to put Keswick back on the Railway map?

While a Pennine railway (pictured) is slowly re-opening sections and Scotland has restored services on part of the Waverley route...Why is it taking so long to revive the Penrith to Keswick Railway. Now that the Lakes have been awarded World Heritage status does this not make the task easier to achieve?
At Alston, to the east of the Lake District, the South Tynedale railway achieved another milestone in 2017 when the Duke of Gloucester opened a new café and toilet block and a £2.3m engineering workshop at Alston, the latter part-funded by a £300,000 Cumbria Growth Fund grant through the Chamber’s Cumbria Business Growth Hub. More on the volunteers trying to revive the Keswick line.

Cumbria's Lord of the Runes

Was this Cumbrian find the inspiration for J R Tolkien's epic tales?

Shame! The Lake District National Park supports New Nuke Reactors

Shocking news that the supposed guardians of the Lakes national park will be raising no major objections to plans for Europe's biggest nuclear plant just miles outside the National Park. The LDNPAuthority states in its Moorside nuclear consultation response: "We support the principle of a new build nuclear power station adjacent to Sellafield. The proposal would continue the long tradition of the nuclear industry in Cumbria and benefit the national and Cumbrian economy. Our support, is consistent with that offered in 2011 when this Authority commented on the National Policy Statement for Nuclear Power Generation. "

*Cumbria's own 'Brunel'
Keswick Convention...what's it all about?
Saving the Lakes from an Army of Conifers
A Tale to amuse Jonathan Swift?
How they took the first elephants to Australia!
The quiet shores of the Solway
St Bega's Walk
Find out about the inter-Irish 'Murphy Riots'
Ennerdale, the quiet valley
Lakeland Breweries
Lakeland Gardens
Cockermouth after the Floods

Cold War Cumbria

Find out some of the ways Cumbria was embroiled in the Cold War...Read on

Borrowdale's Caveman

The eccentric pioneering rock climber and Borrowdale caveman Millican Dalton...more .

Nuke Dump for West Lakeland ?

The granite under parts of Eskdale and Wasdale may end up hosting the UK's proposed underground nuclear dump(estimated cost so far £4.3 billion). Meanwhile the guardians of the Lakes, the National Park Authority says it's inappropriate to object...Lakestay disagrees and says it is much better to keep the waste above ground where it can be monitored. But huge community 'bribes' may cloud Cumbrians' judgement and Copeland and Allerdale councils have said they want to 'take the money'.....Read more on this important issue...or see the video
Meanwhile the quango, West Cumbria Tourism was part funded by Nuclear Management Partners, former operators of Sellafield, until they got the sack.

Wasdale Shepherds Meet enjoyed late summer sun. Trail hounds race for the finish (Pic M.McKenzie) Meanwhile Cumbrian foxhunting packs wait to see if the new government rescind the Foxhunting Ban?

The Doomed Hamlets

This was the last sermon at the church before the reservoir flooded the valley. Read about another chapel lost forever.

Wildlife in your parish

Tullie House at Carlisle has this excellent web site which tells you which rare species live in every parish of Cumbria...
http://www.lakelandwildlife.co.uk/

The Coniston postman always....