Part gallery, cinema, café and creative hub, Rheged is our go-to for browsing contemporary British art and craft, catching an independent film, joining a hands-on workshop or simply settling in with a coffee and a book. Its ever-changing programme makes it an easy stop when you fancy a little culture between the fells.

With its three deep glacial coves and two sharp-topped ridges, Helvellyn might be one for the English records: it’s the third-highest peak in England and the Lake District. It was also one of the first fells to become popular with walkers and explorers, counting poets Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth among its early visitors.

A bistro with beds on a 17th-century sheep farm, The Yan is what we would consider the perfect Lake District base. Seven individually styled bedrooms overlook the Central Fells, while downstairs, the rustic British bistro keeps things hearty. 

A Scandinavian-Cumbrian-influenced menu is at the core of Mathilde's, an all-day café tucked within the art gallery and craft supply store, Heaton Cooper Studio. Tour the collection of family-made prints across the three resident galleries before stopping at the café for a chunk of blueberry, lemon and salted caramel brunsviger (an all-butter brioche).