Coniston Water is our nearest large lake: The childrens’ book “Swallows and Amazons” was set around the lake and Donald Campbell was killed here attempting to regain his water speed record in 1967. The picturesque village of Coniston lies at its northern end, just a half hour’s drive away through the Furness Fells. One of the Lake District’s iconic mountains, the Old Man of Coniston, looks down on village from the west. Hire a sailing boat or take the Coniston Launch or Steam Yacht Gondola across the lake and visit Beatrix Potter’s Tarn Hows or Brantwood House, the former home of John Ruskin.
