Searching for the real Swallows and Amazons country: South Coniston

Wild Cat Island, Swallowdale, the Amazon River, Octopus Lagoon - do these places really exist? Where are they? Swallows and Amazons, plus four more of the twelve books in the series by Arthur Ransome, are set in the Lake District, there is no secret there. However, if you actually go to the Lake District hoping to find the places from the books, things quickly become a lot more mysterious. Nothing is quite as it should be. Arthur Ransome himself promised that 'every single place in those books exists somewhere', but he moved, merged and disguised many of them, leaving his fans the task of trying to track them all down. This video reveals some of what we have found during our visits to the southern end of Coniston Water over the last few years, much of which is based on searching and researching done by other Arthur Ransome fans over what is almost a century now since the first book came out. It doesn't always provide definitive answers - only Arthur Ransome himself could do that. The lines between imagination and reality in these stories are often beautifully and tantalisingly blurred, and the Lake District locations are just one example. 0:00 Opening 1:45 Intro - the heart of Swallows and Amazons country? 7:38 Paddling past Peel Island 8:58 Nibthwaite 15:13 The view north 16:30 First Horseshoe Cove 20:00 Some Beckfoots, and more Horseshoe Coves 25:18 Peel Island and the Secret Harbour 27:57 Serious sleuthing on the Secret Harbour 36:59 Leaving Peel Island, and paddling past a Beckfoot 41:01 Hunt for Swallowdale Part 1 56:18 Hunt for Swallowdale Part 2 1:05:38 On Brock Barrow For more info on Arthur Ransome, try these links as well as The Arthur Ransome Group on Facebook... https://arthur-ransome.org/ http://www.allthingsransome.net http://nancyblackett.org There are several other locations around Coniston which possibly (in some cases probably, or almost definitely) found their way into the books. There are at least two more possible Swallowdales (one among the copper mines, which actually has a cave) and another, a bit further afield at the head of Miterdale, near Wastwater. Then there's the Dogs' Home, an igloo, possible Dixon's and Tyson's Farms, and surely, somewhere among the Coniston Fells, are the inspirations for the Halfway Camp, the Golden Gulch, and Camp Might Have Been. And, of course, I haven't even started on Windermere yet... If you want to go exploring yourself, I would recommend all of these books as guides and companions. 'Arthur Ransome and Captain Flint's' Trunk by Christina Hardyment https://christinahardyment.co.uk/book... 'In the Footsteps of the Swallows and Amazons' by Claire Kendall-Price 'Exploring Arthur Ransome's Lake District' by Jon Sparks 'In Search of Swallows and Amazons: Arthur Ransome's Lakeland' by Roger Wardale And there are many other books on Arthur Ransome's life and works by the authors mentioned above and others. Copyright material from Arthur Ransome's works included with kind permission from the Arthur Ransome Literary Estate. 'Swallows and Amazons' 1930. London: Crescent Press 1992, with illustrations by Arthur Ransome and New Illustrated Edition of the same book, London: Jonathan Cape 1931, with illustrations by Clifford Webb. 'Swallowdale' 1931. London: Jonathan Cape, with illustrations by Clifford Webb, and 1951 impression of the same book with illustrations by Arthur Ransome. 'The Autobiography of Arthur Ransome' 1976. London: Jonathan Cape 1976. Excerpts from letters by Arthur Ransome published in: Hardyment, Christina 1984. 'Arthur Ransome and Captain Flint's Trunk'. London: Frances Lincoln 2006. Wardale, Roger et al 2004: 'The Best of Childhood: Writing the Swallows and Amazons Books'. Amazon Publications 2004. Music from Epidemic Sound https://www.epidemicsound.com/ Jon Bjork: Just Like Paradise Anna Landstrom: The Willow #lakedistrict #arthurransome #swallowsandamazons #adventure #exploring #childrensbooks