Happy Anniversary Run!
The Anniversary Waltz Fell Race was run not far from Keswick around the peaks of Newlands Valley.
The race has fast become a classic Lakeland run, with an 11 1/2 mile course that rises through 3,600 ft of a climb.
Overall winner was Jonny Mellor of Liverpool Harriers who broke the course record with 18.59 in the men’s race.
Lakes car free walk highlighted
Those who fancy putting on their walking boots but leaving the car behind may be interested in a walk over the fells of High Seat and Ullscarf in the Lake District.
Featured in the latest monthly newsletter from the Car Free Walks website, the trek starts in Keswick and ends in Grasmere, both of which are connected by bus on a route between Carlisle and Kendal, including Windermere rail station.
It involves a 20.2 km trek starting in Keswick, covering the high ground between Derwent Water and Thirlmere as it crosses the two fells, both of which are on the Wainwrights list.
Spending much of the day above 2,000 ft, it eventually descends into Grasmere village.
The extensive public transport links in the national park mean a range of walking possibilities exist.
From Grasmere, it is possible to climb mountains such as Helvellyn, Seat Sandal, St Sunday Crag, Fairfield and High Raise, as well as enjoying lower-level walks around the lake and neighbouring Rydal Water, or up Easedale.
Mountain festival adopts Lakeland tourism charity
The organisers of this year’s Keswick Mountain Festival have teamed up with a charity that supports sustainable tourism and conservation in the Lake District.
The festival will help raise funds for Nurture Lakeland which helps with projects such as Fix the Fells, which repairs upland footpaths in the area.
The Keswick Mountain Festival will also help the charity raise its profile in the run up to the event and during the festival itself. Visitors can make a donation when buying tickets for various events and there will be active fundraising at locations and times throughout the festival.
Nurture Lakeland will also have a strong presence during the event, especially in the Adventure Base which will be the main gathering place for the public during the festival.
The festival will run from 18 to 22 May in and around the Cumbrian town.
The charity’s fundraising and that of its business members has raised more than £1.7m in donations, helping to support more than 40 conservation projects across the county. Nurture Lakeland has been chosen as a finalist in the Tourism for Tomorrow Destination Stewardship Award 2011.
Festival director Kate Thomas said: “Over the last five years, Keswick Mountain Festival has brought thousands of extra visitors to the Lake District and while this is very important for the local economy, we are very aware of the extra pressure an influx of people can put on the natural environment.
“We are very committed to the principals of sustainable tourism, so linking up with Nurture Lakeland makes very good sense. We use the fells for almost all of the activities during the festival, so projects like Fix the Fells have a great resonance with us as both organisers of the event and residents of the Lake District.”
Sue Savege, director of Nurture Lakeland, added: “We are really delighted to be the official charity of the 2011 Keswick Mountain Festival and equally delighted that Bluestone, the event organisers have become the latest member of Nurture Lakeland.
“The vibrancy and range of fantastic events on offer at the festival draws so many people to come and enjoy the delights our beautiful landscape has to offer. By supporting the work of Nurture Lakeland we can work in partnership to create a sustainable Lakeland for people to enjoy for years to come.”
More details of the events are on the Keswick Mountain Festival website.
CUMBRIA MINE OWNER MARK WEIR WILL BE REMEMBERED AS LAKE DISTRICT ‘LEGEND’
Family and friends have paid emotional tributes to Mark Weir, the Cumbrian entrepreneur who died in a Lake District helicopter crash.
Those closest to the Honister Slate Mine boss yesterday said he would be remembered “as a legend of the Lake District”.
His family, including his partner Jan Wilkinson and their three young children, are said to be “totally devastated”.
Speaking on behalf of the family and mine staff, friend and publicist Ellis Butcher said: “Mark was a tornado of a personality.
“He was a charismatic Lake District legend with a lust for life and a giant personality.
“He was passionate about everything he did from fatherhood to flying and business.
“Mark loved Honister and Mark was Honister.
“He is irreplaceable both as a man, a son, a father, a partner, a businessman, a boss and a human being.”
Over the years, the successful mine attracted many celebrities including Sir Paul McCartney, Trinny and Susannah, the Hairy Bikers, Sir Bobby Charlton, Geri Halliwell and Kim Wilde.
The cast and crew of ITV soap, Coronation Street, filmed a cliff-hanger episode there in 2008.
Over the last few months, a television crew have been making a documentary about Mark and the mine, which was due to air this uutumn.
Mr Butcher said: “There was no chance a man like Mark Weir was going to slip away quietly from this life in a care home in his 90s.
“The way he went out was always going to be dramatic and so it proved. He was the man every man wanted to be.”
He said that Mr Weir sometimes ruffled feathers. Most recently he launched a controversial bid to build a mile long zip wire at Honister.
“He was a pioneer for this area. He loved questioning authority but won many doubters over through sheer force of his personality,” added Mr Butcher.
“He was that rare mix of shrewd businessman and creative entrepreneur – just as comfortable in the company of royalty and celebrity, as he was driving diggers with slate miners or making tea with the tourists.”
Each year, around 60,000 people flock to the mine and its visitor centre.
Eric Robson, chairman of Cumbria Tourism, paid tribute on behalf of the Lake District tourism industry.
He said: “Mark brought such a spirited dynamism to the debate about creating a thriving tourism economy to the Lakes.
“You also have to give him credit for how he pushed projects through when everybody was saying you can’t do that or you’ll never get away with it. He did, and he brought a tremendous amount of joy to people who enjoyed them. He will be enormously missed.”
Mr Weir, 45, lived at Paradigm Cottages, the family home where Miss Wilkinson runs self-catering accommodation from the renovated buildings.
Born a Borrowdale farmer’s son, Mr Weir was an early entrepreneur and began digging graves locally at the age of 13.
He saved every penny to learn how to fly.
He left Lairthwaite Secondary Modern School in Keswick at 16, and later became a contractor, building retirement homes in Keswick and Cockermouth, Keswick Spa.
Mr Weir built and ran the Herdwick Inn near Penrith, Cockermouth’s Slatefell Stores, Windmill Fisheries and Park Fisheries in Workington.
He also ran a helicopter company in Leeds, covering the TT racing in the Isle of Man from the air and transporting celebrities, including Ian Botham and David Jason.
Mr Weir bought the abandoned slate mine in the 1990s from McAlpine’s knowing next to nothing about mining.
He turning it into a thriving tourist attraction and operating mine that continues to supply slate to the building trade.
It was recently judged “outstanding” by tourism watchdog, Visit England.
Mr Weir installed the UK’s first via ferrata climbing ladder into the cliffs of Honister Cragg.
His grandfather worked in the mine as a slate river until he was 77-years-old.
In the early days of his enterprise when times were tough, Mr Weir said his grandfather sent a message from beyond the grave urging him not to sell the mine.
Speaking of his pride to have been born in the area where he lived and worked, Mr Weir said: “Flying over it, it makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up even now. I’ve been privileged to have been born here.”
Film Cars Put on Sale to Buy More Bond Memorabilia
Car fans have the chance to buy some vehicles made famous by film and television shows.
Peter Nelson has spent years building up his collection for his Cars of the Stars museum, in Keswick, Cumbria.
He plans to sell off some vehicles so he can buy more cars for the James Bond car museum, which he also runs.
For the best prices online, book direct now...