Dove Cottage

Alex Saint
Dove Cottage, Grasmere, image courtesy of venue

There aren’t many that don’t associate the Lake District with Britain’s best known poet William Wordsworth. Each year thousands pay homage to Dove Cottage, a little cottage tucked away near Grasmere which inspired some of the greatest poetry in the English language, but don’t let the crowds deter you as the Wordsworth Trust has sensitively maintained an evocative experience.

Alongside the cottage, museum and a pretty garden is The Jerwood Centre – an award winning new building holding an impressive archive of Wordsworth’s verse drafts, including The Prelude, along with letters, journals and work by other writers like Coleridge and de Quincey and painters Turner, Constable and Girtin.

If Wordsworth and the Lakes were an inspiration to his contemporaries, it remains so today and poetry is a living thing here, with readings, workshops and events filling up the local cultural calendar.

Dove CottageGrasmereLA22 9SQ View map
Telephone: +44(0)15394 35544 Visit Now

Accessibility

Upper floors not accessible by wheelchair; virtual tours available

Admission Charges

£8.25

Opening Hours

  • Monday9:30am - 5:30pm
  • Tuesday9:30am - 5:30pm
  • Wednesday9:30am - 5:30pm
  • Thursday9:30am - 5:30pm
  • Friday9:30am - 5:30pm
  • Saturday9:30am - 5:30pm
  • Sunday9:30am - 5:30pm

Always double check opening hours with the venue before making a special visit.

What's on near Dove Cottage

Keswick Town
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Keswick Film Festival

Keswick Film Festival marks 25 years with a programme featuring some of the best of contemporary independent cinema, alongside select classics, and work from some choice Cumbrian talent.

from £5.00
Visit Blackpool.
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Showzam!

A festival of Circus, Magic and Variety, set to take place during the February half-term holidays. There will be a blend of live performances, illusions, street acts and more.

from £14.00

Where to go near Dove Cottage

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From book launches to writing groups to poetry nights, there’s always something going on at Wordsworth Grasmere.

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Next door to Dove Cottage, Wordsworth’s first family home, is the Wordsworth Museum, which houses an unsurpassed collection of the Wordsworths’ letters, journals and poems.

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Award-winning small bookshop in the Lake District. Est. by Sam Read in 1887. Run by Will Smith and Polly Atkin.

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We love the fantastic Forest Side Restaurant. Attached to the historic Forest Side Hotel in Grasmere, this is one of the best places to eat in Cumbria.

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Once home to William Wordsworth, this historic villa now combines a small, informal art gallery with a giant indoor mural space.

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Kurt Schwitters’ Merzbarn

Tucked away in a remote corner of the Lake District is Kurt Schwitter’s Merzbarn, an artistic epitaph to the avant garde ‘godfather of modern art’.

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Fellini’s does fancy ‘Vegeterranean’ food and films. What better way to treat yourself after a hard tramp in the Lake District?

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