Friars Crag (what3words ///became.hopes.signs) is only a short walk from the town centre and well worth visiting as the view over Derwentwater to the jaws of Borrowdale is amazing. From the Market Square stroll along Lake Road, through the beautiful gardens of Hope Park, follow the shoreline past the boat landings on Derwentwater and you''ll very shortly arrive at the viewpoint.

Just back from the Crag is a monument erected in 1900 in recognition of the writer and artist John Ruskin's first visit to Keswick in 1824. The words on the stone read 'The first thing I remember an an event in life was being taken by my nurse to the brow of Friars Crag on Derwentwater'. Ruskin was five at the time and his first view from the Crag clearly made a lasting impression. Years later he observed that the view from the Crag was one or the finest in Europe. He is also reputed to have said when he first saw Keswick that 'it was a place almost too beautiful to live in'.

Fortunately for us the views haven't changed over the years and the highly complimentary observations made by Ruskin in the mid years of the 19th Century are as true today as they were then.