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A hiker and their dog hiking in the mountains of the Lake District

Women are taking over the Lake District this Spring, and with International Women’s Day and Mother’s Day just around the corner, we here at Lakelovers are feeling inspired!

There have been influential women throughout the years here in the Lake District, from Miss Potter to Miss D Wordsworth, and there are several not-to-be missed exhibitions just starting that celebrate the often unknown sides to these women.

Read below for a look at some of the 2018 exhibitions celebrating Women in Cumbria this Spring.

Ladies Lake District Retreat

Feeling inspired? Why not plan a women-only walking holiday with a group of your most inspiring besties. Create your very own sisterhood retreat, with beauty treatments in your cottage, Nordic walking day trips and inspiring menu’s cooked in your holiday cottage.

Plan your very own ladies-only boot camp, with the mountain forests of Grizedale or Whinlatter as your stomping ground or perhaps bag Britain’s favourite walk, Helvellyn.

Book a large cottage with hot tub or leisure club access for the perfect ladies pampering holiday.  Apple Watch owners, look out for specially-created International Women’s Day Activity Challenge and there are some great gifts and card ideas on Not on the High Street from dogs and pets for Mother’s Day for the “Pawfect Mum!”  Alternatively, give a gift voucher towards a break away, and enjoy 10% off £100 vouchers with Lakelovers this Spring.

Visit us on Facebook for more offers and tag a mum, grandmother, sister or friend who you would like to be part of your Lake District sisterhood retreat

  1. Beatrix Potter – ‘The Right Sort of Woman’

Would the Lake District have achieved UNESCO World Heritage Status if it wasn’t for the incredible conservation work of children’s author, Beatrix Potter?  Upon her death in 1943, Potter left the acres of land she owned to the National Trust, making a large majority of the Lake District a National Park that could been enjoyed by generations to come.

See the2018 exhibition ‘The Right sort of Woman’ at Hill Top, Sawrey, and the Beatrix Potter Gallery, Hawkshead. Delve into the influential role that children’s author Beatrix Potter had in the local region of Cumbria through this year’s special exhibition of rare personal illustrations and sketches, letters and personal possessions. As with many women, you’ll see that there were many ‘sides’ to Beatrix Potter, who was so widely involved in the local community. From her role setting up district nursing, as a landlady and as businesswoman, you’ll get to know the real Beatrix Potter more intimately.

  1. Wordsworth’s Women

Dorothy was besotted with her poet brother, William Wordsworth. She was an avid diary writer, much like her brother, and one excerpt reveals her love for her brother:

“Oh, the darling! . . . Here is one of his bitten apples! I can hardly find it in my heart to throw it into the fire.”

As well as her keen daily journal writing, which are on display at the Wordsworth Museum and give an amazing insight into the daily life of the Wordsworth family, non of Dorothy’s poetry work was published during her lifetime. Dorothy Wordsworth wrote well-received prose, such as Floating Island, and is well known to have inspired many of her brother’s most famous works.

Visit the ‘Women’s Lives Through Letters’ exhibitions at Dove Cottage and the Wordsworth Museum, in Grasmere.

  1. Arts & Crafts House Afternoon Tea & Embroidery

Mum’s enjoy free entry to Blackwell House this Mother’s Day , the finest example of the Arts & Crafts movement in the Lake District. Treat the head of the household to a special Mother’s Day afternoon tea too as well as an embroidery craft session, where the particular skills of Arts & Crafts women are cerebrated.

  1. The Women of Wray Castle: Convention and Control

Head over to the impressive Gothic revival castle, Wray Castle on Windermere, to  find out more about the little-known youth years of Beatrix Potter as well as delving into the real story behind the story family history of former owner of Wray Castle, Margaret Dawson