The double-arched packhorse bridge at Grange has been standing since 1675, and it is one of the most photographed spots in Borrowdale. It carries a lane over the River Derwent in two stone spans, and on most days of the year someone is pointing a camera at it.
The village sits at the entrance to the Jaws of Borrowdale, the point where the valley pinches tight between Castle Crag on one side and Grange Fell on the other. It is a dramatic bit of geography, and Grange is planted right in the middle of it, four miles south of Keswick at the bottom end of Derwentwater.
For most of its history, you could not get a drink here. Grange was a Methodist dry village — the Nonconformist tradition in Borrowdale ran strong, and a Methodist chapel went up nearby in 1878. The teetotal habit held for a very long time. Only recently did the Borrowdale Gates Hotel receive a non-resident alcohol licence, which makes its bar the main source of food and drink in the village. If you want a proper pub, the nearest are in Rosthwaite, half a mile south, or back in Keswick.
Holy Trinity Church dates from 1861, a small Victorian building for a small village.
The walking is the reason most people come. Castle Crag is the obvious one: 290 metres, short and steep, and the lowest of Wainwright's Lakeland Fells — which has not stopped it from being counted among the finest viewpoints of the lot. From the top you get Borrowdale laid out in both directions.
Grange Fell rises above the village to 415 metres at Brund Fell, and it is worth timing for autumn, when the colours come out. Lower down, the south shore of Derwentwater is reached from the village, and the shorepath will take you all the way back to Keswick if you have the legs for it.
The village owes its name to a farm. In 1209, Alice de Rumelli sold the Borrowdale estates to the monks of Furness Abbey, who cleared the land and set up an outlying grange — a monastic farm — and the hamlet that grew around it took the name. The monks grew oats, barley and rye, made charcoal, and concentrated mostly on wool. The word "grange" simply stuck.
Borrowdale itself means the valley of the fort, and it is widely reckoned the most beautiful valley in the Lake District, which is a competitive field.
There is no railway. The Borrowdale Rambler, buses 78 and 79, runs seasonally between Keswick and Seatoller and stops at Grange, but it is not a year-round service. Otherwise it is the B5289 from Keswick, south into the valley and over the bridge.
On a clear morning the Derwent runs shallow and loud under the two arches, and the fells close in on either side, and the whole place feels smaller and quieter than the number of cameras pointed at the bridge would suggest.
