A row of village cottages with one washed pink beside the road at Ireby

Ireby and Caldbeck

Two villages in the quiet fells north of Skiddaw — a former market town with a cross from about 1200, and a mill village with John Peel in the churchyard.

Ireby

Once a thriving market town — the market cross is believed to date from about 1200 — Ireby is now a peaceful, unspoilt village in the fells north of Keswick, in the country known as Back o’ Skidda. It has one pub and a village school.

A couple of miles away lies Overwater, a small and picturesque tarn. Nearby Dodd Wood has a network of walking trails and the viewpoints for watching the Bassenthwaite ospreys. It is an ideal place for a relaxing holiday with Keswick a short drive away.

Ducks on a village pond with a stone house and bare trees behind

Caldbeck

A picturesque fellside village sixteen miles from Keswick and thirteen from Carlisle — far enough out to be a drive rather than a hop, and well placed for the Northern Lakes, the Scottish borders and Hadrian’s Wall.

The village is named for the river it stands on, and that river paid for it. Its water powered the industry of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries: corn mills, woollen mills, bobbin mills, a paper mill and a brewery. Mineral mining mattered too, lead and copper most of all.

Priests Mill, an old water mill on the River Caldew, was built by the rector in 1702 for grinding corn. Two hundred years later it was a sawmill and joiner’s workshop; today it holds retail units and workshops. There are gift and specialist shops through the village, and a good choice of pubs, restaurants and tearooms.

A white fingerpost at a village road junction beside a green-doored stone cottage

The pond, the church and two graves

In the heart of the village is an attractive duck pond, a good spot to sit. It is known locally as the claydubs, which remembers its history as a clay pit for a nineteenth-century brick and tile works.

The present church of St Kentigern dates from the twelfth century and is believed to stand where people have worshipped since Kentigern’s own time. In the churchyard are the graves of Mary Harrison — the Beauty of Buttermere — and of John Peel, the huntsman of the song.

Walking Back o’ Skidda

The hills behind Skiddaw and Blencathra are excellent walking country. These gently undulating lowland fells are among the quietest and most unspoilt in the Lake District, and they give magnificent views of the higher ground to the south. Great Calva and Knott look down on the village.

From Caldbeck there is a short walk to the old bobbin mill and the limestone gorge called the Howk. The National Park publishes the route as a Miles Without Stiles walk.

An old stone barn beside a walled lane with the fellside lost in mist behind

Staying out here

This is the quiet side of Skiddaw. Keswick is close enough for a day out and far enough that you will not hear it.

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