We decided to go and explore one of Britain’s finest examples of limestone pavements. Unfortunately the sun gave way to blizzards and covered them in snow, as you can see it is still a stunning walk whatever the weather, which is a good job in Cumbria!
After a very long January and more of February than we would have liked we finally finished decorating the bathrooms, what better way to celebrate than getting out in to the fresh air.
Lovely walk around the calf on a crisp February day. Pictures don’t do it justice, if it wasn’t for the snow you would think it was summer!
Christmas came early to The Croft House with the first christmas party on 30th November giving us a great excuse to get the decorations up early.
To avoid eating all the mince pies we escaped the house and made the most of the frosty start to December, the first time we have walked up to nine standards and not come back covered in mud!
Looking forward to Christmas but not the queues for the turkey? Fancy a change from having to clean up after the Queens Speech, retreat to The Old Croft House and let Nick & Rachel look after you….
The Old Croft House can be your home away from home for the festive season where you will be free to do as much or as little as you wish. The area surrounding Kirkby Stephen is fantastic walking country and the town has official “Walkers are Welcome” status. You can enjoy anything from a pleasant stroll along the river to a fell top hike or a longer distance themed route. There are recognised trails and walks of various lengths enabling hikers to explore the landscape, villages, culture and history of the area. Wainwright’s famous Coast-to-Coast route crosses the surrounding fells and passes through Kirkby Stephen and Hartley. Classic fell walks such as Nine Standards Rigg, Wild Boar Fell, High Cup Nick and routes in the Howgills are on the doorstep. Much of the surrounding upland is open access land, giving walkers the freedom to roam before returning to relax in front of a roaring fire with a homemade mince pie!
During your stay why not enjoy a freshly prepared home cooked dinner in our Georgian dining room.
Our 3 night Christmas Bed & Breakfast package is available costing £160 per person for groups of 4 to 7 from 24th to 27th December.
We also offer 2 or 3 night New Year’s bed & breakfast package for groups of 6 to 7 from £110 per person
For more information visit our website for all details.
Much as we love cake at the Old Croft House sometimes we need a change so today was designated “crumpet day”. Yum.
We were invited to the first ever Eden Valley Tourism Summit in October so,along with 70 other local tourism related businesses we attended the to see what to expect in the future.
It was an interesting morning and highlighted some of the challenges facing tourism businesses in the Eden Valley, especially as it is often overlooked in favour of the more famous Lake District. There seem to be more and more holiday and activity options available in the area and we made some useful contacts.
If you’d like to see the ITV Border coverage please follow the link.
eden-tourism-summit
We recently attended the Eden Valley Tourism Summit which was held in the grounds of Lowther Castle and after the talks we were lucky enough to have a sneak preview tour inside the castle ruins.
The Castle and grounds have been undergoing restoration for a few years and the grounds are currently open to the public with a restored wing housing a sculpture gallery and castle ruins to be open in 2013 and are well worth a visit.
More information about the restoration project can be www.lowthercastle.org
The annual Tup Auctions were on this week so I’ve had to convince Rachel that our garden really isn’t suitable for a sheep.
There are 3 days of sales of breeding Swaledale Rams and it meant that town was particularly busy with people travelling from all over the country to purchase pedigree Rams.
Space was not the only reason I vetoed Rachels pet suggestion..at an average price of just under £2000 that would be a very expensive pet.
http://www.livestock-sales.co.uk/2012/pedigree_sheep/swaledale/1019/index.html
Acorn Bank is a National Trust garden known for its herbs and fruit and the restored Watermill. It’s only a short drive from Kirkby Stephen so we decided to visit the annual Apple Day Celebration which turned out to be more than just a celebration of apples that we expected but was more like a Country Fair (Nick was happy as managed to have several tastes of a locally brewed Rhubarb wine so a good job he wasn’t driving)
http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/home/item294926
To celebrate surviving our first full season we headed to Martindale with the hope of seeing the Red Deer. The route took in Beda Fell, Angletarn Pikes, Brock Crags, The Knott, High Street before returning to Martindale via Gowk Hill.
We became more and more hopeful that we may be lucky as the valley was regularly filled with the sound of roaring Red Stags. Making our way down from Rest Dodd to The knott we spotted them, or more like they spotted us!