Keswick is the main town of the northern Lake District, sitting at the head of Derwentwater with Skiddaw rising behind it. It is a compact, slate-grey Victorian town of outdoor shops, pubs, and tea rooms — the launching point for walks up Catbells, Skiddaw, Blencathra, and the Borrowdale fells, and home to the Theatre by the Lake, one of the best small theatres in the north of England.
Two miles east of town, on a hilltop ringed by mountains, stands Castlerigg Stone Circle — older than Stonehenge and arguably the most dramatically sited prehistoric monument in Britain. The market square has the slate-built Moot Hall at its centre and several small museums nearby, including the eccentric Pencil Museum and the wide-ranging Keswick Museum. Robert Southey and Samuel Taylor Coleridge both lived at Greta Hall on the river's edge, and Southey is buried at St Kentigern's at Crosthwaite.
Take the launch across Derwentwater to Hawes End and walk back along the shore, or drive the Borrowdale road south through Grange and Rosthwaite for some of the finest valley scenery in the Lakes — onward over the spectacular Honister Pass to Buttermere if you want a longer day.