Kirkstone Pass Back to Lake District Index
Todays popular National Park, "The Lake District" was very different during my early life. I first went to stay at a farm at Rosthwaite at the age of three and vaguely remember the train journey to Penrith. The story goes that the farmer and I fell for each other and I did not want to go back to Edinburgh! The scene during the war was still very different from that of today. Petrol was rationed so there were still few cars. If we climbed a hill we had to get ourselves there on our bikes. There were no wide roads, mostly narrow single lanes. Each week we went on guided nature walks. On Saturdays we were more or less turned out and expected to go exploring. There was not a problem with traffic and we met few people. We had to wait for times like the summer half term to go further afield and try some higher hills. Locally, the lovely Langdale Pikes were our nearest "climb" and we could see Scafell from the top.

Ambleside had no antique shops or tourist attractions. The London Art College was evacuated to one large hotel which livened things up a bit.

The Kirkstone pass was approached from near Ambleside. Although I did not name the sketch. I remember this view of the little lane which went up it in those days.