Keswick Museum

Top choice in Keswick

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Keswick's quirky town museum explores the area's history, from ancient archaeology through to the arrival of industry in the Lakes. It's a diverse collection, taking in everything from neolithic axe heads mined in the Langdale valley to a huge collection of taxidermied butterflies. Its best-known exhibits are a 700-year-old mummified cat and the Musical Stones of Skiddaw, a weird instrument made from hornsfel rock that was once played for Queen Victoria.

Also look out for a lovely collection of metalwork from the Keswick School of Industrial Arts.

Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

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    Hill Top

    18.54 MILES

    Two miles south of Hawkshead, in the tiny village of Near Sawrey, this idyllic farmhouse was purchased in 1905 by Beatrix Potter and was used as…

  • Holker Hall country house & Summer Garden near Cartmel, Cumbria, England; Shutterstock ID 707297809; full: digital; gl: 65050; netsuite: digital; your: Barbara Di Castro 707297809

    Holker Hall

    29.32 MILES

    Three miles east of Cartmel on the B5278, Holker Hall has been the family seat of the Cavendish family for nigh on four centuries. Though parts of it date…

  • Autumn scene at Rydal Mount, house and garden of the English Victorian poet William Wordsworth from 1813 to his death in 1850. It is in Rydal village near Ambleside in the English Lake District, Cumbria, UK. 1281836015 fells

    Rydal Mount

    12.37 MILES

    The poet William Wordsworth's most famous residence in the Lake District is undoubtedly Dove Cottage, but he actually spent a great deal more time at…

  • Grasmere, Lake District, UK - June 2017: Dove Cottage - picturesque home of the poet William Wordsworth. 690001708

    Dove Cottage & The Wordsworth Museum

    11.27 MILES

    On the edge of Grasmere, this tiny, creeper-clad cottage (formerly a pub called the Dove & Olive Bough) was famously inhabited by William Wordsworth…

  • View of Carlisle Castle, Cumbria. England, 11th century.

    Carlisle Castle

    21.74 MILES

    Carlisle's brooding, rust-red castle lurks on the north side of the city. Founded around a Celtic and Roman stronghold, the castle's Norman keep was added…

  • Wordsworth House

    Wordsworth House

    10.32 MILES

    The poet William Wordsworth was born on 7 April 1770 at this handsome Georgian house at the end of Main St. Built around 1745, the house has been…

  • Lowther Estate

    Lowther Estate

    15.72 MILES

    This sprawling country estate once belonged to one of the Lake District's most venerable families and is currently undergoing a huge, multimillion-pound…

  • Ruthwell Cross

    Ruthwell Cross

    29.6 MILES

    Seven miles east of Caerlaverock Castle, in tiny Ruthwell, a church holds one of Europe’s most important early Christian monuments. The 6m-high 7th…

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Nearby Keswick attractions

1. Derwent Pencil Museum

0.35 MILES

Reopened after being badly damaged in the 2015 floods, Keswick's oddest museum is devoted to the charms of the humble pencil – with exhibits including a…

2. Castlerigg Stone Circle

1.4 MILES

Set on a hilltop a mile east of town, this jaw-dropping stone circle consists of 48 stones that are between 3000 and 4000 years old, surrounded by a…

3. Lodore Falls

3 MILES

At the southern end of Derwentwater, this famous waterfall featured in a poem by Robert Southey, but it's only worth visiting after a good spell of rain…

4. Whinlatter Forest Park

3.18 MILES

Encompassing 4.6 sq miles of pine, larch and spruce, Whinlatter is England's only true mountain forest, rising sharply to 790m about 5 miles from Keswick…

5. Bowder Stone

4.44 MILES

A mile south from Grange, a turn-off leads up to the geological curiosity known as the Bowder Stone, a 1700-tonne lump of rock left behind by a retreating…

6. Watendlath Tarn

4.72 MILES

This National Trust–owned tarn is reached via a turn-off on the B5285 south of Keswick. On the way the road passes over one of the Lake District's most…

7. Lakes Distillery

6.68 MILES

The first craft distillery in the Lake District has made a big splash since opening in 2014. It's located on a 'model farm' built during the 1850s and was…

8. Honister Slate Mine

6.89 MILES

This old slate mine has been reinvented as a centre for all kinds of activities: you could venture underground into the bowels of the old 'Edge' and …