Ascent: about 500m
Weather: sun and showers (some heavy)
Trees sniffed: 3 (incense cedar, bay, noble fir)
Log fires sat in front of: 2
From our cottage, we took a path behind the Ship Inn up onto the dismantled railway line (which one could probably join earlier from the lane behind the catholic church) that takes you into Coniston.
We had a look around the Ruskin Museum, where gift aiding your entry gets you a year's free return visits - which we shall be making use of as we didn't quite have time to see the Ruskin exhibit before we left to catch the 10:45am sailing of the launch across to Brantwood, where Ruskin lived his last years.
The crossing was a little choppy at times and there were ominous clouds overhead, but the heavens didn't open until just after we'd disembarked and, being first off the boat, we were able to hurry up the garden path and into the cafe, to place our order for soup and sandwiches before the other bedraggled passengers arrived.
After lunch we toured the house, which was filled with lovely things, and the gardens, lots of zig zags, and followed the estate trail out onto a bridleway which leads through some pretty woodland onto the lane that leads to Monk Coniston arboretum. We were lured into the cafe and fed enormous pieces of cake and coffee before visiting the trees, one of which is one of the rarest trees in the world. The tree trail is free and a lot of fun, there is a great NT leaflet.
We walked up the footpath to Tarn Hows and then around the tarns and saw more Humbug cows and a buzzard in the trees.
We returned to Coniston via The Cumbria Way (in full waterproofs) stopping off in the Black Bull for dinner and Old Man Ale.
Route map (please take the boat) and download gpx
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