Viridian Gallery

Viridian Gallery sits in Keswick, right in the heart of the Lake District, and it's one of those places that catches you off guard in the best way. It's a contemporary art space - the kind where you'll find everything from paintings and sculpture to ceramics and installation work, often with a strong connection to the landscape surrounding it. Most shows rotate regularly, so what's on depends entirely on when you visit.

This is squarely for art lovers rather than the casual tourist crowd. If you're the type who can spend a solid hour reading wall text and thinking about colour theory, you'll get proper value from it. Kids might find it a bit of a slog unless they're genuinely interested in contemporary work - it's not set up for entertainment in the Disney sense. Walkers passing through Keswick could easily dip in for 45 minutes between peaks or after a morning on the fells.

The gallery itself won't cost you much time to find - Keswick's compact enough that you can stumble across it while wandering the high street. Admission details aren't entirely clear from here, so check ahead before you go. If you're based at one of the nearby parks - Keswick Camping and Caravanning Club is barely half a mile away, or Castlerigg Hall if you want glamping - it's a straightforward walk into town. Pair it with a decent lunch at one of Keswick's cafes and you've got a perfectly decent rainy-day plan sorted.