Brothers Ryan and Craig Blackburn have earned a Michelin Bib Gourmand for The Schelly, their easy-going sister restaurant to The Old Stamp House on Ambleside's Church Street.
Created by Sarah Nelson in Grasmere in 1854, Grasmere Gingerbread now has a second home on Hawkshead's Main Street, serving gingerbread ice cream and locally roasted coffee.
The Lakes Distillery has unveiled Signature, a sherry-led single malt bottled at 47% and created by whiskymaker Sarah Burgess, marking a new chapter for English whisky in Cumbria.
Cumbria's biggest music festival returned to Lowther Deer Park this summer with Biffy Clyro, Wolf Alice, Two Door Cinema Club and The Kooks heading a packed bill.
Upstairs at Zeffirellis on Compston Road, Ambleside's Jazz Bar hosts live jazz and world music most Friday and Saturday nights, plus special concerts and a contemporary jazz festival.
After marking 40 years in 2025, the Lake District Music summer festival returned in 2026 with a celebration of Czech music, masterclasses and a return to Keswick.
From polythene bags for poultry farmers to a nationwide name in kitchenware, Lakeland's story began in a Windermere garage and the business still calls the town home.
At Heltondale near Penrith, Professor Jane Barker and Simon Bland have built an award-winning peat-free compost business from two very Cumbrian resources: bracken and wool.
Founded as a small nursery more than 200 years ago, Hayes Garden World in Ambleside has shaped famous Cumbrian gardens and remains a favourite stop on the road into town.
The Spa at Low Wood Bay won the Good Spa Guide's 2025 award for the best spa in North West England, following a £500,000 extension to its indoor and outdoor facilities.
The family-owned Lodore Falls Hotel and Spa, overlooking Derwentwater, has won three Good Spa Guide awards, including Best Destination Spa in 2024 and Best Spa Garden in 2023.
Armathwaite Hall Hotel and Spa has been named Best Countryside Hotel at the Condé Nast Johansens Awards for Excellence 2026, adding to the honours won by its award-winning spa.
Keswick's lakeside playhouse has staged the world premiere of a new play drawn from Helen Rebanks' memoir, the centrepiece of a 2026 season rooted firmly in Cumbrian life.
The much-loved Bowness-on-Windermere venue has taken the name of its former trustee Victoria Wood, marking the change with a new musical built from her songs.
Ambleside's museum and library marked 70 years of Alfred Wainwright's first Pictorial Guide with never-before-seen material, alongside a display of Beatrix Potter's remarkable fungi studies.
Run by a local family business, the Lakesman triathlon in Keswick has been crowned Racecheck's Best of the Best, the highest-rated triathlon on the global review site.
Formerly the Lakeland Climbing Centre, Kendal Wall is Cumbria's largest indoor climbing venue and home to Europe's first indoor via ferrata, with sister walls in Lancashire.
With nine fixtures between May and August and regular crowds of more than 10,000, Cartmel Racecourse remains one of the liveliest dates in the Cumbrian summer calendar.
With Lady of the Lake launched in 1877 and Raven in 1889, Ullswater 'Steamers' still carries visitors across the lake on some of the oldest working passenger boats anywhere.
From the 300-seat MV Swift to a fleet of self-drive electric boats at Lakeside Pier, Windermere Lake Cruises keeps investing in fresh ways to enjoy Windermere.
Reopened by volunteers and enthusiasts in 1973, the Lakeside and Haverthwaite Railway runs steam trains along three and a half miles of the Leven valley to the shores of Windermere.
Created in 2007 by designers Spencer and Diane Hannah, Herdy has made the cheerful face of the Herdwick sheep one of the most recognisable symbols of the Lake District.
Founded in 1957 by the leader of Keswick Mountain Rescue Team, George Fisher has dressed generations of walkers and climbers from a historic building on the edge of town.
Formed in 2001 after the foot-and-mouth crisis, The Wool Clip co-operative sells handmade wool and mohair work from Priest's Mill in Caldbeck and founded Woolfest.