#RoofSquares 16-22: Lake District continued

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Welcome to my next batch of RoofSquares, once again chosen from our recent Lake District holiday. This time we had a cottage in Ambleside, but for old times’ sake we visited Grasmere where we stayed on our last few visits. I’ve always liked this row of cottages on the way up to Allan Bank – to me, the roof looks as though it has been sliced off prematurely.

Here’s Allan Bank itself (National Trust property), looking down on its roof from the Woodland Trail. The small building on the right is the Billiard Room – as a bonus picture, I’ve included its roof from the inside looking up.

Also in Grasmere is St Oswald’s Church. When we last visited three years ago the tower and the church were the same colour. Since then the tower has been restored, including re-roofing and repair of the gutters, castellations and roof pinnacles. Doesn’t it look splendid?

Another day, our walk took us to three different viewpoints over Windermere. This is the lowest and offers a good roofscape of Bowness-on-Windermere.

During the walk, we passed this cottage – Old Droomer. I loved the mossy porch roof over the red door, all surrounded by a wonderful flower display.

This dinky Clock Tower has a castellated roof complete with weathervane. It marks the boundary between the towns of Bowness-on-Windermere and Windermere. I got confused by these names when travelling with my sister and my oldest friend in our early twenties. I assumed the town of Windermere would be right next to the lake and booked accommodation accordingly, not knowing that Bowness was in between. It was a mile uphill from the lake back to our B&B! (By the way, never refer to Lake Windermere – it’s a tautology. Mere means lake.)

Finally, I give you the gloriously neo-Gothic Wray Castle which I’ve written about before and no doubt will again!

My last batch of roofs next Friday will be closer to home, and a non-roof account of our Lakes trip will follow in due course.

No definite news on the Art School yet – the experts have started planning, but there is still a large exclusion zone with residents and businesses displaced. Take a look at this BBC article for pictures of two very roofless buildings – Glasgow School of Art and the ABC venue behind it.

To end on a happier note – I’ve cracked 500 posts! Here’s to the next 500.

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  1. Pingback: The 31st Day of June | The life of B
  2. Pingback: Ambles from Ambleside – The Glasgow Gallivanter

  3. Bowness was the original settlement. Windermere town only sprang up around the railway station when the line was first built and was named after the lake, of course.

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  9. Love Windermere and Bowness though it’s a long time since I’ve been there. We had family friends who had a bungalow overlooking the lake (not that I appreciated it as much as I would do now!). My late mum absolutely adored the Lake District and used to a lot of fell walking back in the day. I love the interesting roofs – the one at the end of the row of cottages does look as if it has been sliced off! Old Droomer is just gorgeous – the red flowers are so pretty with the creams and greens 🙂

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  10. Ah Grasmere! I can smell the gingerbread from here. Such an amazing little shop, owned by a third generation and staffed by ladies wearing full victorian kitchen maid outfits. If you can’t find it, the sweet smell in the air of fresh from the oven warm gingerbread will guide you straight to its door.

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  11. You’re pics are absolutely stunning! I love all these buildings especially the one with the tower that is newly renovated, picture of the home with the bright red door and the castle. They are all great and how I wish I could go on that walk. I so hope the building can be saved.

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  14. Roofs are amazing! I once had to do a project of a building from the early 1900’s and talk about a strange roof. It peaked and dipped in the oddest places, but somehow all came together to cover the whole building.

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  17. Hi Anabel,

    Your roof posts must be the envy of your fellow roof posters (hmm, those two words together sound strange). Not many of us have access to so many different and gorgeous roofs.

    Congratulations on your first 500 posts. How will you celebrate?

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  18. Wow 500! Congratulations 🙂

    Gorgeous roof trail again today, thank you so much. I can’t decide if your clock tower or the doorway is my favourite. Not been to the Lake District for years, and seeing it here through your eyes makes me want to book a trip today.

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  20. It’s a great place. So many brilliant mountains and smaller hills packed into a compact area plus great villages, path networks everywhere, low level and high, with hundreds of interesting pubs and shops. Never had a boring walk in the Lakes- ever.
    Well done on 500 posts.

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    • I just learned 4 new things! (1) tautology (2) ‘mere’ means lake (3) rio means river …. and (4) according to Mr Google, rio grande is actually Portuguese and not Spanish like I thought!!

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        • Here in British Columbia, Canada, many of our rivers have First Nations names. We are fortunate to have many First Nations language families in western Canada.

          For example, in the Carrier language, “ko” means river. Some of the rivers in central BC are the Nechako, the Stellako, and the Endako. In the nearby region where Wetsu’et’en is spoken (a branch of the Carrier language group), “kwa” is the word for river. So we have the Suskwa and the Telkwa flowing through that territory. Of course, not many of the non-First Nations people know that, so people speak of “the Telkwa river” or “Nechako river,” therefore saying, in effect, “Tel river river” or “Necha river river.” I find this quite fascinating.

          Jude

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  24. Congratulations, Anabel, to your 500th post! Great job!
    I just remembered something from my first stay in the Lake District, at the Lakeside Hotel, You won’t belive what that is! It’s the “Sweet Trolley” they came by with for the dessert after dinner. Such lovely choices!
    Have a wonderful weekend,
    Pit

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  25. Congratulations on the 500! And what a lot of lovely roofs (and blue skies) to celebrate. Although I must admit that first one does look as though half the house AND roof are missing.

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  26. Hi Anabel – yes I remember the lake and mere – but forget. My brother has just sent me a couple of pics of Ambleside and the home of my mother’s first husband … now a chic BandB … happy memories of 62 years ago … so your photos today add to that memory bank. Lovely views … so glad you had a happy time … cheers Hilary

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  29. Well done on 500 posts! Looks a very nice place. Still haven’t been to the Lake District but will definitely have to soon.

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  30. Congratulations on your 500th post! I love that Wray Castle, and that roof in the first picture, with the cut-off roof in the cottages on the way to Allan Bank. I also love that shot of the roofscape over Bowness-on-Windermere. This is one place in England we went in 1999. I loved this area. 🙂

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