Many Lives of Beatrix Potter - Full Day All-inclusive Tour One-day tour

Itinerary

Your first stop is at Wray Castle and takes you back in time to when Beatrix Potter was a teenager on holiday in 1882. The usual holiday home, rented for the summer in Scotland, was unavailable and so Beatrix persuaded her parents to take Wray Castle on the shores of Lake Windermere for the summer. It was here that Beatrix spent her
16th birthday, met Canon Hardwicke Drummond Rawnsley, one of the three founding members of The National Trust, and started her lifelong love of the area. This was where it all began for her. Your guide will explain the significance of Wray Castle in Beatrix's life and the people that she met there. After admiring the beauty of the Lakeland fells, tumbling to the lake shore across the sweeping vista of the grounds of the castle we now move on to your next destination via the steep and twisty, narrow Lakeland roads set in the charming pastoral landscape, to Beatrix Potter's home in Near Sawrey. 

On arrival, your guide will take you on a walking tour of the village pointing out all of the places that Beatrix knew and used in her illustrations for the famous books. At the end of the village you will arrive at Hill Top, a 17th century farmhouse which was the home of Beatrix Potter. Your entry to Hill Top and Gardens is included in your tour. Beatrix wrote many of her famous children's stories in this little house. Characters such as Tom Kitten, Samuel Whiskers and Jemima Puddleduck were all created here, and the books contain many pictures based on the house and garden. You will have plenty of time to visit the house, gardens and gift shop before moving on to your next destination. 

A scenic drive will take you past the beautiful Esthwaite Water, so admired by both William Wordsworth and Beatrix Potter. It was probably a combination of Moss Eccles Tarn with its water lillies, and Esthwaite Water that served as the inspiration for the home of her tale of a frog who lives in a "slippy-sloppy" house at the edge of a pond in The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher. 

Moving on through the sublime countryside, you arrive for an early lunch in Hawkshead, "the prettiest village in the Lake District". Your guide will take you on a short guided walk around the village and then take you into the the Beatrix Potter Gallery where you will be able to see original Beatrix Potter manuscripts and illustrations. You will then have time for lunch and to explore the village at your own pace. 

After lunch, a short drive up Hawkshead Hill leads us on to the next destination of your tour, the beautiful Tarn Hows. The land and farms around were part of the considerable Monk Coniston Estate which was bought by Beatrix Potter and eventually sold or bequeathed to The National Trust so that the landscape and its unique way of life would be preserved forever. Your guide will point out features of interest and explain more about the life of Beatrix Potter as a farmer and conservationist. You will have an opportunity to take a short walk to the Tarn before we drive along a steep, spectacular and narrow road, deep into the Yewdale Valley. 

Yewdale, once part of the Monk Coniston estate, and bounded by steep, craggy fells, offers the visitor some stunning scenery. Our road through the valley offers us a view down on to Yew Tree Farm which was the location for the 2006 film Miss Potter. The road falls steeply downhill, so narrow that it is one way, for no other vehicle could pass without tumbling to their doom, and takes us through enchanted, shaded woodland. Emerging on to a more major road opposite Monk Coniston Hall. On the shore of Coniston Water, we stop to take in the view. From here we follow the lake shore until we are on the edge of the village before plunging back into the Yewdale Valley. 

We are now on our way to your next destination but before arrive, the road takes us right past Yew Tree Farm once owned by Beatrix Potter, with its rare spinning gallery. The farms in this area, all owned by Beatrix Potter were where she, and her tenant farmers, bred her beloved Herdwick sheep. You will have a quick stop to snap some pictures. 

We continue our drive back to the town of Ambleside where your guide will take you into the Armitt Library & Museum to see another aspect of Beatrix Potter's life, that of the scientific researcher and illustrator. Your entry to the Armitt Library & Museum is included in the tour. Here you will see fascinating insights into Beatrix's interest in
mycology as a young woman illustrated by her stunningly detailed and beautiful illustrations which she bequeathed to the library in her will. You can also see the other museum exhibitions and browse the reference library full of rare and interesting books. This concludes the tour and so your driver will then take you to your drop-off points.