The magnetic call of the Lakes

I’ve visited the Lakes in the dead of winter, when bright sunlight and crisp air make its forests and valleys the most stunning on Earth.

I’ve also been in the height of summer, when torrential downpours and high winds have rendered the distant landscape invisible behind clouds and fog.

The Lakes is like Forrest Gump’s famous box of chocolates: you never know what you’re going to get. And I don’t know if it was someone from Cumbria who coined the old adage that there’s no such thing as the wrong weather, only the wrong clothes, but it could and should have been.

Our most recent visit to the Lakes was in July. It was also the first time we’d stayed there as a family, with our children Alice, then four-and-a-half, and Charlie, just six.

Grey skies abounded, but we made the best of it, because it’s difficult not to do that from the four-star comfort of the Low Wood Hotel, nestling in woodland right on the banks of Windermere.

Sitting in the luxurious surroundings of the restaurant or reception bar, we agreed that the clouds scudding across the mountains and across the churning steel-grey waters of the lake were dramatic rather than depressing.

Besides, there’s much to entertain in the immediate vicinity of the hotel. An imposing white edifice, the Low Wood is separated by a (busy, it has to be said) road from its own marina, where yachts bob and watersports events regularly take place.

There’s an excellent, organically-designed swimming pool, with regular children’s sessions involving floats and water sprays, and for the grown-ups there’s the relaxing retreat of the spa, a fitness studio and even squash courts.

Our family room was spacious and comfortable, with a double bed and two singles, and a separate lounge area with TV.

The eating options are wide and varied – from a pizzeria to the opulent Windermere restaurant, where we enjoyed an excellent meal comprised of many locally-sourced items. Although a little formal-looking, the restaurant sets aside family-friendly times and the staff were excellent with the children.

And the food was incredible, perfectly catering to a hearty appetite developed in the open air but, at the same time, maintaining class and quality and the feel and appearance of top-flight restaurant fare. A difficult balance to strike, but one that the Low Wood restaurant manages with aplomb.

The Low Wood has been in the process of renovating some areas for a while, and though you never see this in action, you can see how the public areas at the front of the facility have been improved. The attention to detail is fantastic, and I challenge you to take a comfort break in a classier lavatory in the Lakes. Where else can you perform your ablutions under low-level lighting and use the latest technology to dry your hands while the audiobook of Arthur Ransom’s Swallows And Amazons is piped through?

As impressive as the toilets are though, and as beautiful and comfortable as the Low Wood is, it would be a crime to visit the Lakes and stay indoors. You can take a walk down to Ambleside, with its clutch of little shops and tearooms, and then perhaps take a boat trip over to Bowness-on-Windermere, which is a fantastically cosmopolitan little place, full of quality shops, bistros and bars, all tastefully in keeping with the feel of the place. It’s no wonder it attracts so many people over the course of a year.

We had a special mission in mind, and that was to visit the World Of Beatrix Potter Attraction, which sits in Bowness.

The children have long been fans of Potter’s beautifully-told and expertly-illustrated animal tales, from Peter Rabbit to Jeremy Fisher. Potter is one of the Lakes’ favourite daughters – a Londoner who fell in love with the place and made her home there, in Hill Top Farm, which we also visited.

But her legacy is much greater than her books. With the money from her publishing successes, Potter bought up huge swathes of the Lake District around Windermere that were in danger of being developed, and preserved for us today the national park that we have come to love.

The danger with any tourist attraction based around a favourite author is that it will be cheap, tacky and unfitting.

Not so the Beatrix Potter Attraction. It is one of the classiest tourist attractions I have ever visited. It hews so close to Potter’s vision and art that as you walk among the 3D dioramas depicting scenes from her stories, you feel at times that you’ve fallen into one of those funny little Frederick Warne hardbacks. There is an interesting and engaging multimedia presentation on Potter’s life that even kept our youngsters rapt, and a wonderfully well-thought-out recreation of Mr MacGregor’s garden in an open-air courtyard, where the attraction grows all its own produce for the attached tearooms. The whole attraction is enchanting and we came out of it feeling utterly fulfilled.

There are always events, especially at half-term and school holidays.

Potter’s reach spreads much further across the Lakes, of course, and clustered around the shores of Windermere you will also find the home she bought when she made the decision to stay in the Lakes, Hill Top Farm, which you can visit and tour around (though be prepared for a wait at peak times) and also the former offices of her husband in Hawkshead.

For children, though, there isn’t much that can touch the World of Beatrix Potter, which is both fun, involving and (whisper it) educational. Even the inevitable gift shop at the end of the tour had enough reasonably-priced treats to satisfy the child-like need for a souvenir, though if you have got money to burn and fancy blowing a chunk of it on a limited edition porcelain figure or plush toy, then that market is certainly catered for as well.

After the tour, we went for a boat trip on Windermere. This is something you should definitely do, if only to see the boathouses that sit on secluded inlets and command prices that would make your eyes water... twice the national average house price, in some cases. And, yes, we did get more July rain.

But a bit of rain will never detract from the beauty of the Lake District, and as long as there are hotels like the Low Wood and places to visit of the calibre of the World Of Beatrix Potter, the British weather can do just as it likes.