Even those of us not fortunate enough to grow up with Swallows and Amazons set in Cumbria will have heard of Kendal at an early age. Kendal is a market town located on the edge of the Lake District, only 8 miles away from Windermere. It is famous for a number of reasons, but mostly for its mint cake, which is a favoured provision of mountaineers because of its high energy content: it was packed by Edmund Hillary and team on their ascent up Everest in 1953.
There is so much to see and do in Kendal including:
- the annual mountain festival, one of the biggest in Europe and held every November
- visiting one of the three museums; the Museum of Lakeland Life with Arthur Ransome collection, and the Kendal Museum with the drawings of Alfred Wainwright, whose inked fell maps are as much of a Kendal souvenir as the mint cake.
The official tourism site for Kendal has a lot more advice on what to see and do when visiting this beautiful market town.
