Lake District - things to do with 1 year old

[Weegle]

Going to the Lakes next week. Our old-life pursuits of walking/cycling are out as I'm a bit immobile. What can we do on good/bad weather days with a one year old? We are staying near Hawkshead. DS isn't walking but is v active and won't appreciate being stuck in his buggy for hours on end.

bad weather -not a lot!

There is the aquarium at Lakeside and Beatrix Potter at Bowness, both can be got to via the Ferry from Hawkshead

Good weather-Loads of parks but he may be too little for most of them.

Have to agree, in bad weather not a lot but in good weather plenty.

At age one DS will just be happy to be with mummy and daddy so if you just plan to spend lots of time with him he'll be OK. Grizedale Forest is extremely pushchait friendly for a 3 wheeler/backpack or there's the lakeside at bowness for lots of ducks/swans/mini donuts

If he's into trains then there's the steam railway that runs from haverthwaite or a bt further there's a narrow gage railway at ravenglass (but don't go via hard knott pass - however short it looks on the map you'd need new brake pads on the car!). Brockhole has a good playground from memory butr he's probably a bit young yet.

Have fun - enjoy this time of doing thing you still want to do before he gets too vocal

Thanks - some good ideas there! He loves ducks so that's an idea! And I think DH will definitely go with the train idea.

Yes, a few years since we went over Hard Knott - my sister refused to drive and so stopped the car half way for me to take over!

I'm just not used to doing anything but walking/cycling in the Lakes, hence a bit bereft of ideas...

Is there a good baby friendly pool anywhere in case the weather is truly dire?

There is a place to observe Ospreys near Bassenthwaite - and a mock-up giant badger sett with an attached adventure playground. (not sure if it is suitable for 1 year-olds). The Osprey observation point is on the east side of the lake, with a buggy-possible path up the hill, the badger sett is on the west side of the lake, southern end, on the litttle minor road that runs parallel with the lake, not the big fast road.

Go on the steamer on Ullswater - it has a covered deck for rainy weather.

Find nice picnic spots where your ds can clamber/ cruise on small boulders. There will still be lambs on the fells.

Will ds go in a back-pack? Go on circular walks round lakes, rather than uphill slogs.

hmmm we have just come back from a week in the lakes, staying in pooley bride by ullswater. my tiddler was just over 11 months at the time, but an active walker. the weather was poor and i have to say we struggled.

we took the ullswater steamer, but the one we took outbound wasn't great as it had open railings to the side so she had to stay in the buggy all the way (im a bit of a worrier!), but the one back was totally enclosed so she could run about and have fun.

we walked up to aira force (husbands idea rather than mine - i'm 5 months preg), with her in a backpack, which she hated. managed to find a spot near the top where she could stretch her legs, but this wasn't a trip she enjoyed. and beware the tea shop and parking. both massively over-priced! we did try walking round ullswater with the buggy, but ours isn't an all terrain buggy and we had to turn back pretty early doors.

one day we drove down to ambleside and found a lovely park where she could run about, but this was on one of the few days where the weather was ok.

other than that, we called in at the tourist info in penrith and picked up lots of ideas on things we could do with her, that possibly could be done anywhere. there are quite a few petting farms, but we didn't try any of these as we do this quite a lot at home in kent. also there is a children's soft play area in penrith, but obv this is a 20 mile-ish trip from windermere. i'm sure things like this are all over anyway. i'd really recommend the tourist info folk though, i'm sure they're as helpful all over as in penrith and the lady there couldn't do enough for us.

sorry, don't want to sound too negative as the lakes are fab and we'd defo go back, but when the weather is poor it is difficult to find nice things to do with an active toddler. have to concur with a previous poster though, she had an ace time just spending proper quality time with her pa. not something she really gets a chance to do too much off in the normal run of things.....