Cockermouth

Why base here

Cockermouth is a working market town of 8,847 people at the point where the River Cocker joins the Derwent. Wikipedia dates its market charter to 1221 and 1227, and William Wordsworth was born in the town in 1770; Wordsworth House on Main Street is now a National Trust property. The case for sleeping here is a plain one: a town with its own shops and pubs a few miles from Lorton Vale and Loweswater, and a bus that reaches Keswick without a change. The case against is that no fell starts from the door. If the plan is a week on the high ground around Derwentwater or Borrowdale, Keswick is the base for those, and Cockermouth suits the quieter north-western end. The river that makes the town also floods it: Wikipedia records water reaching 2.5 metres on 19 and 20 November 2009.

On foot versus by car

None of the four walks and rides on this list starts from the town on foot. Low Fell and Fellbarrow begin about 9km south-east at Loweswater, and the Lake District National Park gives the B5292 from Cockermouth and the B5289 through Low Lorton as the road. Whinlatter Forest, about 11km away, stands at the top of the B5292 pass between High Lorton and Braithwaite, per Wikipedia. Buttermere Lake Circuit is about 15km off and Catbells about 16km, though Catbells begins at Hawse End on the Derwentwater side and is better reached from Keswick. A seasonal shuttle has run from Cockermouth Main Street to Buttermere by way of Low Lorton and Lanthwaite Green; the National Park publishes each year whether it runs. Buttermere is the better base if the circuit is the point.

Practicalities

Passenger trains left Cockermouth when its station closed on 18 April 1966, and Visit Lake District puts Maryport, on the Cumbrian coast line, about 7 miles away. Stagecoach runs the X4 and X5 between Workington, Cockermouth, Keswick and Penrith, according to Scenic Buses, and the operator publishes the timetable. In town the long-stay car parks are pay and display, and the town’s own site warns that traffic wardens patrol them.