THINGS TO DO IN CUMBRIA AND YORKSHIRE DALES
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Have Martin Frickel cook for you
Would you like to have Martin Frickel cook for you? More and more these days, we see groups having a reunion stay here, decide to treat themselves to an evening with dinner cooked for them by a chef. They talk passionately the next morning about how great it was and...
What is a Singing Bowl?
If you have ever heard about sound baths, or singing bowls and wondered what on earth they are, I can highly recommend getting in touch with Laura-Jane Clare if you are coming to stay here. I have had a the luxury of having Laura-Jane set up her Quartz crystal singing...
A Day in the Lake District : In search of Landscape Art
So on my vision board wish list last year and this year has been an image of a circular stone sculpture, a piece of landscape art, that is one of many out there in the Lake District, now termed, the 'Borrowdale Banksy'. The weather forecast predicted excellent...
The Arts & Crafts Movement at Blackwell
Do you ever even think of a building in relation to the Arts & Crafts Movement? Take a visit to Blackwell, The Arts & Crafts House, and you will start to see all the little details in a building differently. A great place to visit if you are looking for...
A Day in the Lake District : Sunday Rituals
What are Sunday Rituals? Do people still have routines these days that are the same, week in, week out? We discovered what a few of them may be on our recent walk amongst the hills of Troutbeck in the Lake District. A campervan already sits by the river in the carpark...
A Day in the Lake District : These are a few of my favourite things
Sunday mornings are never about lie ins these days and the morning light on the drive away from Cautley, immediately proved the alarm call was going to be worth it. Yeah there is a, very quiet and empty, motorway drive up to Penrith, but then the lake side road that...
A Day in the Lake District : Quiet Mornings
The road winds along, free of the usual traffic and Lake Windermere comes in to view. Always my favourite stretch of this particular road, where I get my first glimpse to see if the water is rippling with waves and wind, or so still that it looks like a sheet of glass...
What is Fascia?
When we said we had The Fascia Retreat booked in here at St Marks Stays, most people said they had heard the term being used a lot lately, but often asked What is Fascia? Thanks to the ladies behind The Fascia Retreat, we can bring you a little insight and show you...
What you can do on the Lakes
With so many people embracing the outdoors and the UK National Parks, we are often asked, what can you do on the lakes. It would be easy to assume, with the increased interest in open water, that you can just dive in to any lake in the Lake District, or launch your...
We stepped Into the Outside for Adventure
Since moving to Cumbria we have been trying our hand at more and more adventure activities and recently we stepped Into the Outside for adventure with the awesome team that are Becki and Dan of Into The Outside. It all started with a question on Instagram about being...
Embracing the Outdoors
Living in Cumbria we acknowledged very quickly that you have to learn to love all the seasons and be about embracing the outdoors in all weathers. We all know how much the outdoors and natural world has come to mean to us this year and now, as the seasons change and...
Ingleton Waterfalls Trail
A favourite of many our guests, the Ingleton Waterfalls Trail is an easy day out for almost everyone. The steps however, do make it unsuitable for pushchairs and wheelchairs though. You can take dogs and there are always plenty of families there. The trail is a 7km...
50 Mini Ways to be Happy
In celebration of Damian's 50th birthday this month, we have created a list of 50 mini ways to be happy. Please do enjoy and share with anyone you think may find a few things to do on here. 1 Live in the moment 2 Get outdoors 3 Blast out some music 4 Treat yourself to...
Films and documentaries relating to the natural world
If you are looking for something to watch whilst staying at home and patiently waiting to properly get back out to the wider outdoor world, we have rounded up our recommendations on films and documentaries relating to the natural world. We both watch a lot of films...
Our Green Impact
I would honestly say that Damian and I never really thought about our Green Impact on the world until our expedition with Raleigh International. Yes we recycled, but consciously choosing how to shop, or run the household was not a priority. We are still not totally...
A Cycling Cake Circuit in Yorkshire
When a couple of our friends told us that cyclists love a bit of cake, we thought what a great idea it would be to show you a cycling cake circuit in Yorkshire! This is more our level to be honest. The Yorkshire Dales is often known as the home of cycling after the...
Firepit Cooking
The thing we have had more time to do over the weekends recently, is some firepit cooking using our Kadai Firebowl. The most common use by guests, for what we call the 'Firepit' is simply having a fire. Not even many barbecues have taken place over on that grill. So...
Kendal Mountain Festival 2019
Yet again we took the opportunity to visit the Kendal Mountain Festival this year and as always came away so very inspired. We are so lucky to have this on our doorstep, so to speak, as it is only a 20 minute drive away and the atmosphere is so good. There is...
Yorkshire 3 Peaks
Having lived in the Yorkshire Dales National Park for 2 years 5 months now, we felt it was finally time to take on the Yorkshire 3 Peaks challenge. Having had several groups stay at St Marks Stays doing this particular challenge and often for charity, we get asked...
Walking The Howgill Fells
One of the common questions from guests is about what walks are there to do in the area and with St Marks Stays being located in the Howgill Fells, we are pretty spoiled for choice here. Being a walker himself, Damian has maps of the Yorkshire Dales and the Lake...