The week after our family holiday in the Midlands I was off again for a few days for a short solo break in Coniston where I’d booked into the Youth Hostel for a couple of nights. The weather forecast was mixed, especially the first day and at one point I contemplated cancelling. But, with summer coming to an end, I decided against it and take my chances.
The weather forecast for the first day proved to be correct when I arrived in a wet Coniston on the Thursday afternoon. There weren’t that many people around in the streets but the main car park was full and all the street parking spaces were taken. I eventually managed to park up but it was raining steadily so I decided to pay a visit to the Ruskin Museum and see how it looked later in the afternoon.
I spent a good hour mooching around.
The museum was founded as a memorial to John Ruskin, who spent the last years of his life at Brantwood on the east shore of Coniston Water and who died on 20 January 1900, by his secretary and friend, W G Collingwood. Many of the original exhibits were from Ruskin’s own collection of geological samples.
The exhibits cover the history of Coniston, it’s geology, industry and well known individuals, including Ruskin and Arthur Ransome. One wing is devoted to Donald Campbell and his attempts at the water speed record on Coniston Water in the 1960’s. He was tragically killed on 4 January 1967 when attempting to break the record Bluebird hit a wave at over 300 mph, flipped over and crashed upside down on the water and sank. I remember vividly watching the film of the crash on the TV news as a boy.
It was still raining as I left the museum so I decided to make my way down to the lake and have a brew in the Bluebird cafe on the lake shore.
I stopped for a while watching the Gondola leaving the jetty
before retreating to the cafe.
The rain had eased off so I decided I’d set off for a walk along the lakeside. I had thought about catching the launch, disembarking down past Torver and walking back, but I was between sailings, so decided to do a “there and back walk” past Coniston Hall and see how far I got.
I’d walked a couple of miles when the rain started agin so I turned round and retraced my steps back towards the cafe
Time for a warming brew.
Afterwards I made my way back to the car, drove the short distance to the hostel and checked in.
The rain cleared during the evening so I set off for a short walk down to the lake, along tot he jetty and then back through the village and along the path at the bottom of Yewdale.
Down by the Dougie 
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Well I’m finally back in the blogging world after several weeks of intermittent problems finally killed my pc and I had to get a new one, so I’ve a lot of blogs and posts to catch up on.
I’ve never been to Coniston but I remember seeing the Bluebird crash on the tv news. I love your last photo, the colours are beautiful 🙂
I thought you’d gone very quiet! Sorry to hear about your IT problem – a real pain when that happens – but very pleased to see you back online and looking forward to catching up with your adventures 🙂
I well remember the death of Campbell. Pleased you got away to Coniston.
Ages since I was in Coniston. It used to be a favourite walking venue. Hope the weather picked up for you. 👍😊
I first went Coniston when I was about 15, camping on the Coniston Hall site. That’s where I had my first holiday with my girlfriend who I married a few years later. So lots of memories there.
As for the weather – all will be revealed in the next couple of posts 😉
Agree with Eunice, that last photo is amazing. Have travelled to Brantwood on the Gondola a couple of times.
The light was good that evening and the cloud (which had largely cleared after all the rain) added to the atmosphere
Lovely spot Coniston, one of the finest of the Lakes