me and the wife (and the dog) are heading up to Grange over Sands today for five days, any one recommend anything to do up that way? oh and is it worth taking the bike?

I lived there for 9 years. Close to Coniston and Windemere and Kendal. Grange is quiet, a place people go to die frankly….

I had a wonderful holiday there when I was five in the crazy hot summer of 1976. I got stung by a bee, though – be careful out there!! 🙂

Rachel

How mobile are you??

Plenty of biking up there and climbing and the rest.

a place where people go to die!! They didnt mention that in the brochure!
fairly mobile, im taking the van up so getting around isnt a problem

You won’t be far from Grizedale.

Although the North Face Trail is ok you have probably the biggest network of techy Bw’s within a forest anywhere in the country. Buy a map and plot some routes there is plenty to go at even evading out and down to Hawkshead over to the Sawreys, windermere Lake linking back over to Hawkshead and not the forest.

Or you can head towards Coniston and link back round and into the forest.

There is definetly endless trails and routes to be had!!!!!

It’s affectionately known as “heavens waiting room”.

It’s not called gods waiting room for nothing! Check out higginsons for the best pies in cumbria!
There’s a recent route around chapel house woods/cartel fell that’s not to far from grange. Otherwise its a short drive up in to grizedale, ambleside, staveley or windermere, to get some riding in.

They used to have a nice swimming pool.

The butchers is quite nice.

TBH, I’d use it as a base for the lakes and western cumbria, rather than hand around there.

Based on what you guys have said Im taking my bike and a large collection of pastel clothing and grey cardigans. Any more suggestions?

If you like your food, there’s the Cartmel Sticky Toffee Pudding factory shop – which isn’t actually made in Cartmel anymore, the factory’s on the road to the Haven campsite on the old airfield road out of Flookburgh.

The Engine Inn in Cark is worth a visit too, beer’s nice and food’s great

And + several for the butchers in Grange

Plenty of Bridleways from Grange over to Chapel house woods, the one from Bigland to Newby Bridge can be fun.just have a look on the OS maps (a little bit ‘damp’ at the moment though). Easy access to the south of Grizedale forest, Coniston not too faraway, Whitbarrow scar has some interesting routes too. Good (posh) cafe is the Hazlemere for tea and cakes in china cups chosen from the tea menu. Good chippy friendly and eat in with sliced white bread and butter and pots of tea. Cartmel has good pub, bakery and cheese shop and Rogan is great for an upmarket and slightly different meal out.
Enjoy.
Andy

Holker Hall is worth a visit

Not a million miles away but Leighton Moss RSPB site is worth a day trip if you like wildlife…

paul

Derby Arms at Witherslack is good for food, short ride through the flat Lithe valley to get there from Grange. Plenty of good pubs and riding within 30mins of grange.

There’s some very nice walking (or cheeky biking) around Arnside and Silverdale, the Fairy Steps etc. Some good rock climbing round there too if you’re into that.

+1 the fairy steps

Decent food and beers in The Albion in Arnside too.

The butchers for pies.

+1 for The Derby Arms & Higginbottam’s butchers. Loads of walking, boating at Fell Foot Park, Cartmel is worth a look, good pubs etc. Not a lot in Grange itself but if you travel few miles in any direction there’s loads to do. Loads of biking in the Southern Lakes too.

You`ll never leave!

Hop across to Flookburgh and jump out of an aeroplane?

Go round to the opposite side of the estuary (or walk across with the guide Cedric Robinson) and visit Arnside, which is a nice little seaside resort without the fish & chips and candy floss. If you have a car, Wolf House gallery in Silverdale has a nice cafe. The walk up Arnside Nab is a nice easy stroll too. In Windermere you’ve got all the stuff like boat trips in Bowness, there’s a good cafe at Booths next to Windermere station and a good family cafe in Lakeland, that amazing shop full of solutions looking for a problem. While there you could go 4×4 driving with the blokes at Kankku, which is fantastic fun. Don’t waste your money on the Beatrix Potter experience. Grizedale forest for walks, visitor centre and cycling. Drunken Duck inn is supposed to be good but I haven’t been there for years. You could go to Brathay Hall at the end of Windermere near Ambleside and see if you can hire canoes and go out with a guide – we did, it was excellent especially when the massive storm came charging down the lake. Oh and Hodge Close is good for walks amongst silver birch and mine spoil heaps and the amazing massive holes in the ground, you can climb right down to the water level, turn north off the Ambleside-Coniston road.

There used to be a particularly good chippy in arnside!

Butchers van has notice on back door stating “no pies left in this van overnight”!
Made me chuckle.

http://www.wildanimalpark.co.uk/

is pretty good

took some advice from you guys, went to the butchers for some pies, did some walks, got sticky toffee pudding from cartmel. Great weather but the highlight was watching the RAF jets flying over windemere.

Looks like you had some decent weather. I grew up in Grange – it’s true what they say about the rather aged population, but it’s probably only in the last few years I have realised how lucky I was to have grown up in the lakes. I even worked in Higginsons as the Saturday boy. Ahhh, happy days!

Raf, are regular over here, its awesome watching chinooks fly about 50 ft above the lake.
Is that brantfell in the photos?

yes mate the last three are brantfell, lovely place to be and thats where the first jet (tornado I think??) came round us to head down the lake

The ‘God’s Waiting Room’ joke backfired on my dad a few years back. Driving towards Cark, he stopped to see if he could help a chap who appeared to have had a bike mechanical.

In the end, he offered to give the guy a lift back to his home in Grange. During the drive, the guy revealed he’d not long since moved to Grange, to which my dad remarked, “You know they call it God’s Waiting Room, don’t you?”.

The chap responded by saying that, no, he hadn’t heard that, but it was quite appropriate for him, as he had an inoperable brain tumour and only had a few months to live.

Probably a quiet journey for the rest of the way…