The Lake District Shopping Experience

If you are looking for some retail therapy there are department stores, specialist shops and factory outlets in the main towns. From Lakeland Limited in Windermere to Hawkshead Clothing to Bowness-on-Windermere which has something for everyone; there's a lot of shopping to be done in the Lakes. The new K Shoes Factory Outlet in Kendal is now open, and in Kendal town centre there's Elephant Yard and the Westmorland Shopping Centre.

Arts and crafts, antiques and books, all are well served in the Lake District, There are countless galleries, antique and craft shops tucked away in the Lakeland villages. See Blackwell for Arts & Crafts near Linthwaite; Heaton Cooper in Grasmere; Northern Lights, Keswick; Armitt, Ambleside; Thornthwaite Keswick to name but a few.

Need a fleece, walking boots or waterproof walking gear? Nowhere in the UK offers such a choice. Ambleside must be the capital of outdoor gear with myriad shops, including Rohan, Blacks (still there?) and good locals like Stewardsons, Cunningham Sports, but Bowness/Windermere, Grasmere, Kendal and Keswick are also host to a huge number of outdoor shops. George Fisher is regarded as the Rolls Royce in Keswick! And of course we mustn't forget Hawkshead with Hawkshead clothing now a giant mail order business.

If you are a keen gardener there are a whole host of garden centres in the local area including Hayes Garden World in Ambleside and Grasmere Garden Centre, owned by the folks who used to have the Queen's Head Inn at Troutbeck.

Cumbria also has a wide selection of unique speciality food shops that you won't find anywhere else, and are all well worth visiting. The Grasmere Gingerbread shop is one such place: Over 140 years ago, Sarah Nelson began baking gingerbread in what was once the old school house tucked by St Oswald's lychgate (where William Wordsworth is buried). They still use the same 'secret' recipe, it is superb. The gingerbread is made daily, and the wonderful aroma of freshly baked gingerbread is enough to lure anyone into this tiny shop and if you time your visit right you can buy it while still warm and soft.

If visiting Kendal, a must for all chocaholics is the 1657 Chocolate House on Branthwaite Brow. So called, because 1657 was the date the first chocolate House opened in England. It sells a variety of chocolates and upstairs there is a cafe - the menu is almost entirely devoted to chocolate cakes and patisseries. The building itself is estimated to date back to 1630. There is another wonderful chocolate shop in Orton; nice run out East.

Other delicacies to look out for are the famous Kendal mint cake, sticky toffee pudding from Cartmel, ice cream, Cumberland sausages, chocolate, honey, mustard and there's also a wide variety of locally brewed ales, most served only at source (eg. Coniston, Cartmel).

Melmerby Bakery near Penrith is bread heaven in the North but Staff of Life in Kendal is king in the South. Bag yourself lots of goodies at the Barn Shop, Sizergh on your way to Junction 36.  This is an award winning vendor of their own and others excellent produce. Vegetables, milk, bread and cheese, plus all sorts of other goodies, edible and not.

If in the Penrith are a must visit is the Watermill at Little Salkeld. Millshop & Tearoom

Open daily (including weekends) from 10.30am to 5pm, Mid January to Christmas. The Tearoom serves morning coffee, wholefood vegetarian lunches and afternoon teas.