place

Walla Crag

Fells of the Lake District
Walla Crag from Hause Gate (2)
Walla Crag from Hause Gate (2)

Walla Crag is a fell in the English Lake District, near Keswick. The fell is a short walk from Keswick and overlooks Derwentwater.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Walla Crag (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 54.5808 ° E -3.12166 °
placeShow on map

Address

B5289
CA12 5UP
England, United Kingdom
mapOpen on Google Maps

Walla Crag from Hause Gate (2)
Walla Crag from Hause Gate (2)
Share experience

Nearby Places

Keswick, Cumbria
Keswick, Cumbria

Keswick ( KEZ-ik) is a market town and civil parish in the Cumberland unitary authority area of Cumbria, England. Historically, until 1974, it was part of the county of Cumberland. It lies within the Lake District National Park, Keswick is just north of Derwentwater and is four miles (six kilometres) from Bassenthwaite Lake. The parish had a population of 5,243 at the 2011 census. There is evidence of prehistoric occupation of the area, but the first recorded mention of the town dates from the 13th century, when Edward I of England granted a charter for Keswick's market, which has maintained a continuous 700-year existence. The town was an important mining area, and from the 18th century has been known as a holiday centre; tourism has been its principal industry for more than 150 years. Its features include the Moot Hall; a modern theatre, the Theatre by the Lake; one of Britain's oldest surviving cinemas, the Alhambra; and the Keswick Museum and Art Gallery in the town's largest open space, Fitz Park. Among the town's annual events is the Keswick Convention, an Evangelical gathering attracting visitors from many countries. Keswick became widely known for its association with the poets Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey. Together with their fellow Lake Poet William Wordsworth, based at Grasmere, 12 miles (19 kilometres) away, they made the scenic beauty of the area widely known to readers in Britain and beyond. In the late 19th century and into the 20th, Keswick was the focus of several important initiatives by the growing conservation movement, often led by Hardwicke Rawnsley, vicar of the nearby Crosthwaite parish and co-founder of the National Trust, which has built up extensive holdings in the area.

Ruskin Monument
Ruskin Monument

The Ruskin Monument is a memorial to John Ruskin located on the edge of Derwentwater in the English Lakes at Friars' Crag, Keswick, Cumbria. It was erected on 6 October 1900, shortly after his death, largely through the efforts of Hardwicke Rawnsley. The monument consists of a monolithic block of Borrowdale stone. It is of the type of the standing stones of Galloway, the earliest Christian monuments of the Celtic people, and was chosen as a link with Scotland, the land of Ruskin's fore-elders. Upon one side is incised a Chi-Rho enclosed in a circle after the fashion of the earliest crosses, with the following inscription beneath from Deucalion, Lecture xii., par. 40:The Spirit of God is around you in the air that you breathe,—His glory in the light that you see; and in the fruitfulness of the earth, and the joy of its creatures, He has written for you, day by day, His revelation, as He has granted you, day by day, your daily bread.On the other side of the monolith, facing the lake which Ruskin once described "as one of the three most beautiful scenes in Europe," there is a medallion in bronze, the work of Signor Lucchesi, representing Ruskin in profile as he was in the early 1870s, when he composed Fors Clavigera and was Slade Professor of Fine Art at the University of Oxford. A crown of wild olive is seen in the background of the panel, which is hollowed to give the profile high relief, and Ruskin's motto, "To-day," is among the olive leaves in the background over the head. Above the portrait is the name "John Ruskin," beneath are his dates 1819 to 1900. Beneath these again is incised an inscription taken from Modern Painters, vol. iii, ch. vxii:The first thing which I remember, as an event in life, was being taken by my nurse to the brow of Friar's Crag on Derwent Water.The lettering was designed and drawn by Ruskin's biographer, W. G. Collingwood, and was so designed to indicate Ruskin's dot and dash style of drawing. Ruskin wrote that "all monuments to individuals are, to a certain extent, triumphant; therefore, they must not be placed where nature has no elevation of character." The scene was chosen thus, like the stone, which exists quite naturally amidst its surroundings.