The Ruskin Museum
Coniston's village museum, home to Donald Campbell's restored Bluebird K7 hydroplane alongside copper mines, Swallows and Amazons and John Ruskin. A rainy-day hour built round one properly jaw-dropping exhibit.
Coniston Launch
Coniston, Cumbria
The Coniston Launch runs boats round Coniston Water from the pier just outside the village, calling at Torver, Sunny Bank and Brantwood, John Ruskin's old house. Tickets are day tickets, so you can hop off at a jetty for a walk or a picnic and catch a later boat back.
The 45-minute Red route passes Bluebird's old base and names the fells as you go. The 60-minute Yellow route covers almost the whole lake and passes Wild Cat Island, the island from the 1970s Swallows and Amazons film. The cabins are heated, which matters from October onwards, and well-behaved dogs are welcome.
It is not cheap for adults at £18 on the Red route, but children are £8.75, under-5s go free, and the 15% online discount takes the edge off. It runs in winter too, on a reduced Yellow-route timetable.
What it costs: Day tickets, hop on and off: Red route (45 minutes) £18 adult, £8.75 child 5 to 15; Yellow Wild Cat Island route (60 minutes) £20 and £9.25, and it covers the Red route too; Green route (80 minutes, Mondays to Thursdays only) £22 adult, £9.50 child. Under-5s free. 15% off when you buy online. Single fares are sold on the boat.
Know before you go
- Take the Yellow route if anyone has read or watched Swallows and Amazons. It passes Wild Cat Island and the secret harbour, and the ticket also covers the Red route for the day.
- From 2 November to 5 March only the Yellow route runs, and only on set days: most of November, a handful of December weekends plus 28 to 31 December, and January weekends, then daily from 1 February.
- Coniston Boating Centre is on the same shore if you would rather row yourselves: rowing boats are £35 for an hour for three or four people, with under-16s allowed if an adult is aboard.
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