CampingChildrenDays OutGeneralHoliday

Camping at Derwent Water, Keswick – the Lake District

We stayed at the Caravan and Camping Club site at Keswick. The site is located at the edge of Derwent Water in the Lake District National Park in Cumbria.

The site has direct access to the lake and as you can see from the photo below it has a great view.

Camping at Keswick - Derwent Water in the Lake District

After check-in we were asked if we would like to be near a certain area and as we have young children went for an area near to the toilets. If we hadn’t then we would have been quite a distance from the nearest toilets. We were directed to a pitch and put our tent up. The ground was fairly even but did have some small dips which we were able to avoid. It was good that we avoided them as whilst it was sunny when we arrived and on the day we left most of the rest of the time was very wet and the site was waterlogged later on in the weekend.

The site has two toilet blocks which are quite old, but reasonably well maintained. They close the toilets for cleaning individually, so there is always a toilet block open.
The site also has a children’s play area in the middle of the site.

Camping at Keswick - Derwent Water in the Lake District

The site is within walking distance of the town centre of Keswick, although it is a good 10 minutes walk. There is a choice of supermarkets and various shops and restaurants. We bought food from Booth’s to have a BBQ on the first night, but on the second night we had fish and chips. The first fish and chip shop on Main Street did not show a child’s menu so instead we walked around the corner to one that did which is on Bank Street opposite the police station. We enjoyed the fish and chips.

We spent much of the rest of the time off-site visiting attractions around the Lake District. This included a day out visiting Hadrian’s Wall and Birdoswald Roman Fort, a boat trip on the Ullswater Steamers, a train ride on the Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway and on the day we left we went to the rowing boats on Derwent Water at the nearby Keswick Launch Company.

The site was active during the day with people launching their own boats and canoes onto the Lake, but was quiet during the evenings.

Summary

A great site with direct access onto the Derwent Water Lake. Walking distance to nearby Keswick and a good place to take children.