Just a couple of hours drive, yet a world away from the hassles of school bubbles, social distancing, masks and the working-from-home week we found the perfect half-term hideaway at The Tranquil Otter – luxury lodges with hot tubs on a private nature reserve in Cumbria.
In the run up it looked like we might have to cancel this trip – again (we had already rescheduled from Easter). However ultimately we did manage a break to recharge our batteries and enjoy a weekend of relaxation, nature, food and autumn walks, before Lockdown 2 hit.
The Tranquil Otter
The Tranquil Otter is located in a little known, rural location on the outskirts of Thurstonfield, a village on the Solway Plain in north west Cumbria, between the ancient Roman city of Carlisle and the Solway Coast that forms part of the border between England and Scotland. It is not an area we are familiar with but, as we discovered, The Tranquil Otter is perfectly positioned for a quiet escape to the country and there is plenty to do right on the doorstep with local walks and picturesque villages to explore. It’s also well placed to explore the natural beauty of the Cumbrian seaside and Solway Coast (designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty) as well as Carlisle and, slightly further afield, the Lake District, Hadrian’s Wall and southern Scotland.
Each 5-star luxury lodge is south-facing with fabulous views across Thurstonfield Lough (lake) and has its own jetty and flat bottomed boat. There is also a hot tub on the waterfront deck and a cosy log burner inside. We were in Dunnock Lodge, with a spacious open-plan living area, well equipped kitchen, two cosy bedrooms (one en-suite), and a spacious family bathroom. It was absolutely perfect for our needs and hilariously rechristened Dunnop Lodge (dunnop who?).
Although there are 8 lodges on site, plus a large holiday house, they feel nicely secluded. It felt like a proper hideaway, nestled in the woods in this fab lakeside lodge.
It would undoubtedly be lovely here in summer, but the wooden lodges are almost made for a cosy autumn or winter getaway.
Here you feel totally immersed in the natural world and getting back to nature is definitely good for the soul. After our customary holiday big breakfast and a very lazy, rainy morning watching the swans and Woody Woodpecker doing acrobatics on the bird feeder outside, we donned our waterproofs and wellies and headed out to explore the lough.
The kids were keen for some lake action, so we decided to take the boat out for a row. I say “we” but actually mean I decided that ‘Addy would take the boat out for a row. It wasn’t exactly the idyllic messing around in boats as per Ratty in The Wind In The Willows, nor a Famous Five intrepid adventure to Kirrin Island, but it was fun. Let’s just say we need more rowing practice.
I should mention that buoyancy jackets are available from the office for those who are more health and safety conscious!
There is a lovely woodland walk circling the perimeter of the lough, through private woodland, with a bird hide on the far side, from which we partook in some twitching. The lough is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and the RSPB regularly audits the wildlife activity. There is a huge variety of waterfowl living on it: Swans, geese, coots, moorhens, mallards, grebes, widgeon and teal. Unfortunately we weren’t lucky enough to spot a kingfisher or any otters but there were plenty of other sightings to keep us entertained. Besides, the boy was more interested in looking at the “hotdogs on sticks” (bullrushes) anyway.
We ended the day with a trip out for portions of delicious fish and chips at The Original John’s Plaice (what looked like a former Little Chef on the main A595 between Cockermouth and Carlisle). The food was top quality – hot, freshly cooked and delicious with crisp batter, moist haddock and perfect chips. We finished with huge scoops of lovely ice cream. Service was friendly and efficient and it felt very covid safe. A great find!
We followed this with some hot tub action, which to be honest is never the relaxing spa experience you imagine it will be, when kids are involved. With the ridiculous, splashy boy diving around like a breaching whale in a swimming pool, no one really found it very tranquil. But the kids had fun and I can dream. Or wait until they’ve gone to bed.
Silloth and Grune Point
Next day dawned sunny and we headed to the Cumbrian coast where we discovered another hidden gem – Silloth, on the Solway Firth. It is a lovely, quiet and unspoilt Victorian seaside town with wide tree lined cobbled streets, attractive buildings, a spacious sea front green and magnificent promenade stretching for miles. There is a relaxed, family friendly atmosphere and sense of vibrancy that is sometimes missing from out of the way, long forgotten seaside resorts. I really loved it.
Nestling on the shores of the Solway Coast AONB, facing the hills of Southern Galloway and backed by the Lake District Fells, Silloth benefits from its glorious position with big skies, awe-inspiring views and sunsets fine enough to be recorded for posterity by Turner, the famous landscape artist. It is such a handsome town and whilst we’ve never really ventured to this part of Cumbria before, it really is worth a visit.
We had a great walk along the sea front, past East Cote Lighthouse and out to Grune Point, with stunning views to Scotland across the Solway and a riot of vivid rainbows. A stew of oystercatchers pottered out on the muddy estuary and the boy suffered an unprovoked attack by a crazy seagull for good measure.
The kids loved jumping on the huge stone sea defences along the route.
North of Silloth, beyond the village of Skinburness, the concrete steps of the promenade end and the path passes between the last of the houses (including the longhouses of Skinburness, which are reputed to have been the haunt of smugglers from Scotland). From here the path drops onto the flat expanse of beach where it follows the pebbly shore, before crossing through thick spiny gorse bushes to Grune Point, a wild shingle spit of land sticking out into the Moricambe Estuary.
At the end of the windswept point we found a circular pillbox, hidden in the gorse. Built of distinctive concrete sandbags, it is topped by a cairn serving as a memorial to four Silloth Firemen who drowned while trying to rescue a stranded birdwatcher, and inside a single central pillar holds up the roof. It was built during the Second World War to ward off the German invasion that fortunately never came.
Our return route traced the western side of the spit which is more sheltered and comprises of Skinburness saltmarsh and mudflats where sheep and cattle graze the vegetation and the tidal creeks provide a haven for wading birds and other wildfowl. The water levels had obviously been very high recently and the path was littered with driftwood and tiny dead crabs. Just before Skinburness we took a right and rejoined the coast path, from where we retraced our outward route back along the promenade to the start. This is an unusual but stunning and interesting walk, one we’d definitely recommend.
Further details of our walk, and others in the area, can be found here.
Back in town we had lovely ice creams from Davison’s Ice Cream Factory which had a brilliant selection of flavours and some very jazzy cone options. ‘Addy enjoyed a hot treacle sponge with ice cream – a genius idea for the colder months. Then we headed to the kids adventure playground, set in a lovely wooded copse just off the sea front.
We ate tasty tapas at The Bank of Silloth for tea, it definitely lived up to the excellent online reviews and every dish we had was absolutely delicious! The menu is really interesting and varied – we could easily have eaten one of everything. What we did have included sticky bbq belly pork, grilled squid, fantastic Cumbrian chorizo, patatas bravas, baked feta with thyme and honey, amazingly soft textured meatballs, garlic and mozarella flatbread, salted padron peppers and perfectly cooked sirloin with chimichuri sauce. We thought it was really good quality and value with decent tapas sized portions.
Although the restaurant feels luxuriously “grown up” and stylish we were made very welcome and the kids were given sweets after the meal, which was a nice touch. It felt very covid safe and complied with all regulations. Overall it was an outstanding experience. This is definitely a hidden gem and perhaps quite unexpected in this quiet Cumbrian backwater.
A wet walk up Catbells & Keswick
A long weekend wasn’t really long enough to explore this lovely spot, but we had to leave. We decided to make the most of our final day before heading home though and as we’ve had our eye on Catbells for quite some time, we decided to return via the Lake District and tick this Wainwright off.
We stopped off at Cranston’s Food Hall at Orton Grange on the way past, for pork pies and scotch eggs to fuel us and I was seduced by the cheese counter and a 2kg Cumberland sausage. This is a fantastic food hall with a proper butchery and loads of local produce.
First the disclaimer; Catbells is very popular and there aren’t many opportunities to avoid the crowds. Parking at Hawes End is best described as limited, at worst busy and chaotic, and there are double yellow restrictions in place. However even arriving mid-morning, later than we would have liked, we eventually managed to find a spot not too far up the road. My advice would be to arrive very early, or to avoid issues completely park in Keswick and catch the launch to Hawes End to the start of the walk.
‘Addy suggested we’d be lucky to avoid a shower today, but it was all good, if a bit grey, as we set off from Hawes End. However just as we arrived at the foot of the ascent it started raining, so we took a moment to get our waterproof trousers on.
As it was we’d have taken a shower because what we actually got was torrential rain and battering winds. With rain lashing into our faces and stinging our cheeks for the whole ascent, it was a real struggle. As we stopped and turned our backs on the worst of the pelting rain, the boy was crying and I did momentarily consider turning back. Not one to give up easily though we bowed our heads against the wind and rain and plowed on. It’s character building I told them, you’ll thank me for this one day.
Our route took us up the north end of the fell, taking the engineered zig-zags which help ease the steep gradient. The path then is interrupted by a short, rocky scramble before reaching a plateau. From here you walk up the distinctive ridge of Skelgill bank, for which Catbells is famous. One last climb then leads you to the exposed, craggy summit. The summit is marked with a new trig point and boasts breathtaking, 360° views of the lake and surrounding mountains. From the summit the obvious path continues straight ahead following the rocky footpath south to the saddle of Hause Gate. At the point where four paths converge, we descended via the steep but well made path and steps to our left (East) which takes you down towards the lake.
The ascent involves a couple of minor scrambles up steep rock that require you to use your hands, made all the more difficult in the wet. One fellow walker had a panic attack and had to be coaxed up the rocks. Although nothing too technical, Catbells is not necessarily the easy fell walk it is often billed as.
However the well defined route is simple to navigate and the short, sharp, steep climb is richly rewarded by the awesome views over Derwent Water, Keswick and beyond to Skidaw, Blancathra and Bassenthwaite Lake. Add to this the views of the Newlands Valley and fells to the west and the panorama down Borrowdale in the south. Despite its modest height (451m/ 1,480ft), Catbells offers an unrivalled outlook from its rocky summit.
I would definitely advise doing the route this way round (anti-clockwise) – the scrambly bits are much easier in ascent and the steps off the ridge, whilst a bit tedious, get you down quickly and without difficulty.
Even on such an awful day the route was really busy and it felt a bit like we were queuing on Everest for the final ascent, in parts. Don’t expect to have the summit to yourself!
It stopped raining once we reached the summit and we found a slightly sheltered spot just off the top to scoff our pork products. The gusty winds remained though and at one point, whilst navigating the ridge at Hause Gate, it was all we could do to remain standing and the boy was actually blown over. However we made it safely back to the car, slightly bedraggled but well pleased with our achievement. The kids will remember the day we walked Catbells for a long time to come and I hope it has helped to show them that if they don’t give up at the first hurdle they can overcome tough challenges.
After our exertions we had all definitely earned some treats, so we headed into Keswick to the Herdy shop and for coffee, cake and fudge.
After that it was a matter of heading home for a late takeout pizza tea and to get the piles of washing done, without much prospect of getting it dried very quickly with the miserable forecast.
This largely forgotten part of Cumbria, tucked away on the Solway Coast, probably doesn’t benefit from being so close to the popular Lake District, nor from being so far north and west. It isn’t really somewhere you stumble across or pass through, it’s slightly inaccessible and you really need to make a deliberate decision to go there. Yet for this reason it still retains much of its wild and unspoilt character and there is much of interest. It demands further exploration and is definitely an area we will return to, once we can.
The Tranquil Otter, The Lough, Thurstonfield, Cumbria, CA5 6HB.
Further details can be found on their website here.
