Treeby & Bolton Gallery

Art galleries tucked away in Lake District towns don't always announce themselves loudly, and Treeby & Bolton is exactly that sort of place - you'll find it in Keswick, where the fells loom over everything and the high street is thick with outdoor shops. This is a proper working gallery, the kind where you walk in without fanfare and get a genuine sense of what the artists are actually doing rather than feeling shepherded through a tourist machine.

The gallery shows contemporary work, primarily painting and sculpture, with a strong lean towards artists engaged with landscape and the natural world. That makes sense given the setting - you're surrounded by some of England's most dramatic scenery, and the work on the walls reflects that obsession. It's intimate rather than grand, which means you'll spend a proper hour here if you're genuinely interested, or twenty minutes if you're just browsing between a cafe stop and heading up a fell.

Worth a detour if you're the sort who likes to understand what local artists are thinking about. Less essential if you're on a tight family schedule with young kids keen to burn energy outdoors. The galleries dotted around Keswick itself are your best bet for rainy afternoons - and they do come thick and fast in the Lake District.

Stay at Keswick Camping and Caravanning Club just half a mile away, or Castlerigg Hall if you want a bit more space, and you're positioned perfectly to mix gallery time with the walking and climbing the area is actually famous for.