Visit Keswick the Lake District
Plan your stay and discover Keswick and its surrounding valleys and villages.
- Book quality guest houses and experience a true Lake District welcome or spoil yourself in a luxurious hotel
- Stay in superb self catering cottages or plan a break in a luxurious lodge.
- Try camping and glamping in wonderfully situated campsites or stay on a farm and enjoy rural life.
Keswick events calendar
View all eventsRead our Visit Keswick blog. Get out and about with the team from Keswick Tourism Association and get ideas and inspiration for your next visit.
Looking for a new start or a change of career? Keswick is a fantastic place to live and work with a wide range of activities for your time out.
Take a look at our latest newsletter full of news, events and information.
Thirlmere Be-dammed: The story of Thirlmere before & after the reservoir
A hundred and fifty years ago, in a quiet valley not far from Keswick, a small community of families made up of farmers, miners, labourers, blacksmiths, joiners, carters, a shoemaker, a nurse and a vicar (amongst many others) suffered a massive upheaval in their lives. The city of Manchester needed a more reliable water supply and the Waterworks Committee decided that building a dam across the Thirlmere valley and a 100 mile aqueduct to Manchester was the best way to get it. As a result, the homes, gardens, roads and fields that bordered the original twin lakes in the valley bottom were submerged by a new reservoir. Thousands of people pass by the Thirlmere reservoir on the main road each day without ever knowing the history behind it. It’s a valley that changed forever with the building of the dam and this exhibition is a small part of its story.