Things to Do and See
Hadrian’s Wall and Beyond
Holmehead is perfectly situated for our guests to enjoy a wide range of local attractions in Cumbria Northumbria.
There are many things to do and see. We have pulled together some of our favourites for you here.
For Walkers …
For walkers, Holmehead Holiday Homes, situated only 600 metres from Hadrian’s Wall provides plenty of opportunity. Some of the best preserved parts of the wall are within easy walking distance of Holmehead. If you have two cars then you can place one at each end of your planned walk and hike from one to the other. You could easily experience a weeks worth of not too strenuous excursions using this method. There are also a number of pubs along the route of the wall where you can rest and enjoy the local fare. At Twice Brewed (as the name suggests) there is even a local brewery.
There is also a Hadrian’s Wall bus that operates all year round https://cumbria.gov.uk/buses/AD122/ .
For further information on the Hadrian’s Wall Experience visit here:- https://hadrianswallcountry.co.uk/.
Holmehead is situated in the heart of England’s Border Country straddling both Cumbria and Northumberland, as well as the Scottish Borders. You can find fantastic walks all the way from Lanercost to Alston, or north towards Bewcastle.
For Cyclists …
For cyclists there is a myriad of quiet country roads to the north of Holmehead, all the way to the Scottish Borders and beyond. These offer stunning, if sometimes wild, scenery down towards the Solway and the Irish sea. It really is a vast, mainly unspoilt, countryside where you can plan short or long rides. We recommend taking your own refreshment as pubs are few and far apart!
This is classic “Reiver” country where families like the Armstrongs, Elliots, and Turnbulls conducted their various feuds over 200 years. Indeed Holmehead Farmhouse is a “Bastle” home, a fortified farmhouse with 4ft thick walls where the adults lived on the first floor and the livestock (cows, sheep, chickens and geese) lived downstairs for protection and warmth. This could be said to be the original form of central heating! These houses are unique to the border regions of England and Scotland. Although, like Holmehead, a few are still occupied, most are either ruins or have disappeared. No doubt some of Hadrian’s Wall stone was used to build these houses, as it was for many other properties found along its route.
For Golfers …
There are a huge number of golf courses within an hours drive of Holmehead. For more information please see our dedicated golfing page.
Places to Visit
Ullswater
Holmehead is less than a hours drive to the North Lakes District of Penrith and Ullswater. There you can take a ferry from Pooley Bridge to Glenridding via Howtown and Aira Force waterfall and back again.
Or you can spend a leisurely day experiencing the various trails around the lake and sampling the various watering holes along the way.
For further Information visit:- https://www.lakedistrict.gov.uk/visiting/places-to-go/explore-ullswater-glenridding-and-pooley-bridge
Lanercost
Holmehead is a mile from Lanercost with it delightful Priory, mostly ruined, but with the original knave still in use as the local Anglican Church. The priory has a long history and dates back to Edward Ist, where he was billeted whilst holding court in Carlisle and “hammering the Scots”.
You can find more information here: https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/lanercost-priory/
Carlisle
Carlisle is certainly worth a visit with its Castle and Cathedral and other buildings of note. https://www.discovercarlisle.co.uk/
Further Afield
For those happy to travel further then Newcastle upon Tyne with all it’s history from the Industrial Revolution is an hours train journey from nearby Haltwhistle.
It hosts the “Discovery Museum” which is well worth a good afternoon’s visit. For those that enjoy the arts there is the Theatre Royal, which offers a variety of shows and plays throughout the year, many just off the London Stage, as well as the Northern Theatre at Newcastle University and of course on the Gateshead side of the river is the world renowned “Sage” building, home to the Northern Symphonia and the “Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art”. Also close to the University is the “Hancock Museum“.
All the above are well worth a visit and you would struggle to see them all in a single day.
Being close to Scotland there are a number of interesting places to visit such as the North Coast of the Solway including Gretna, Annan, Dumfries as well as Lockerbie and Langholm a little further north.
Just south of the border in Northumberland but only an hour away is Kielder Water, England’s largest man made lake, with its “Dark Sky Observatory” which on clear nights is well worth a visit. https://kielderobservatory.org/
So, for those that enjoy the English countryside, there is lots to see and do, all within an hours drive of Holmehead.
For those that have not visited this part of the UK before will be amazed at everything it has to offer. Hopefully you will go home well rested.
