Things to do in Keswick, Lake District

Hire from the Keswick landing stages. £12 an hour for a wooden rowing boat on Derwentwater. Pick a still afternoon, take a flask.

Best Italian restaurant in the Lakes. Market Square, CA12 5JD. Book at least a week ahead for weekends — they fill up quickly.

3,000-year-old stone circle, 10 minutes from town. CA12 4RN. Park free, walk in. Extraordinary in the last hour of light.

Four miles north on Bassenthwaite Lake. A proper gastropub lunch in a 17th-century coaching inn. Worth the small detour out of town.

One of the finest regional theatres in England. Year-round programme, lakeside setting, restaurant on site. Book ahead at weekends.

Altura Trail (red grade), Quercus (blue). Full bike hire on site. Café, drying room, the lot. The best forest trail centre in the north of England.

20 minutes north at Bassenthwaite. Whisky, gin, vodka — all made on site. Tasting flight, bistro lunch, gift shop you'll spend more in than you planned.

One of the best outdoor shops in England. Three floors, café upstairs with valley views, proper boot-fitting service. Worth a browse even if you're not buying.

Keswick's best pub. Real ales, good food, actual locals, dogs everywhere. The kind of place where you order one and stay for three.

England's 4th highest peak. 8 miles, 4–5 hours, 931m summit. On a clear day you can see Scotland. Earn your dinner.

25 minutes through Borrowdale. Underground mine tour, working slate operation, the Via Ferrata up on the cliff if you've got the nerve. Tours from £15.

Free entry. Victorian curiosities, local history, Southey and Wordsworth manuscripts, a mummified cat. Compact and odd in the best way.

30-minute drive east. Grass-roofed arts and food centre with cinema, climbing wall and one of the best food halls in Cumbria. Free entry.

40-minute drive south near Bowness. Arts and Crafts masterpiece, original 1900 fittings, café with views over Windermere. Worth a half day.

Good coffee, valley views, free wifi, three floors of outdoor gear underneath you. The Lakes' best rainy-day waiting room.

Dark Sky Discovery Site. Take a flask, drive up after 10pm in summer, watch the Milky Way over a 3,000-year-old stone circle. Free, never busy.

Guided cold-water swims from the Keswick shore. Wetsuits provided, beginners welcome, hot drink afterwards. Most invigorating start to a day you'll ever have.

Narrow, dramatic, barely two cars wide in places. Skip the main road and follow the Borrowdale valley south to Honister. One of England's great drives.

Arrive Saturday 8:30am before the stalls fill out. Pick up Cumbrian air-dried ham, Allerdale cheese and damson gin, then picnic at Friar's Crag.

"The Swirling Mist" — guided evening walks above the town, June to September. Sunset over the fells, head torches on for the descent.

Big open green space on the lake edge. Kids can run free, dogs can swim. Picnic spot of choice. Lakeside car park is the closest (paid).

3,000-year-old stone circle, 10-minute drive from town. CA12 4RN. Free, always open, never quite the same view twice.

Free walk if you park at Hawse End (CA12 5UE, 5 spaces, free). £0 parking, £0 entry, priceless view. Arrive before 8am in summer.

Free to walk through, Saturday and Thursday. Better than half the paid attractions in the area. Buy lunch from the stalls.

Easy 1.5-mile path through Fitz Park along the River Greta. Free, lit in sections after dark, runs from the town centre to Brundholme Woods.

One of England's finest regional theatres. Year-round programme — drama, music, comedy. Lakeside setting, restaurant on site, evening shows from 7:30pm.

Dark Sky Discovery site, 10 minutes from town. Drive up after 10pm in summer for the Milky Way over the stones. Bring layers.

Relaxed café-bar with later opening, decent cocktails, live acoustic music most weekends. Younger crowd than the Dog & Gun.

The Fitz Park section is lit and safe after dark. Easy 30-minute loop from Market Square. Surprisingly beautiful with the river running high.

A bigger pub on Lake Road with regular live music — folk, blues, the occasional ceilidh. Check listings before you head over.

Keswick's distinctive 19th-century town hall in the middle of Market Square. Tourist info downstairs, exhibition space upstairs.

George Fisher (outdoor), Bookends (independent bookshop), Lakeland Sheepskin, and the Viridian Gallery. Keswick punches above its weight.

Borrowdale tea bread, sticky toffee pudding, sausage rolls. The Keswick institution. Order to go for a Crow Park picnic.

Mid-Victorian church above the town with one of the best panoramas in Keswick. Worth the five-minute climb. Hugh Walpole is buried in the graveyard.

The town's big riverside park. Cricket pitch, bowling green, playground, bandstand. Free outdoor concerts on summer Sundays.