Travel Junkie Girl

08/05/2026

*New* on the Blog:
What I thought to the Singing Ringing Tree, up on the moors above Burnley...
Plus everything you need to know about visiting!

The Singing Ringing Tree is a large-scale musical sculpture, known as a panopticon, that sits high on the hills overlooking Burnley in East Lancashire, with spectacular 360° views. If you’re visiting the Burnley area, I can highly recommend heading into the hills to see this musical tree. It’s ...

03/05/2026

Last week I did a wonderful walk over Arnside Knott from the village of Arnside, circling around the coast with a short detour to see Arnside Tower, a 15th century castle keep or Pele Tower. 😍

These are just a few of the highlights of this fab 8 mile circular walk! 🤩 Check out the photo captions for details.

Note: There is free access to the outside of Arnside tower from the footpath that runs alongside, but do not venture into the ruins. I was amazed there were no barriers around what is considered an unsafe site.

You pass through three holiday parks as you make your way along the coast path, however if you have low tide, as we did, it's much better to walk around on the beach. It is safe to do so, but the sand is muddy in places so wear decent footwear that you don't mind getting messy!

Call in at the Arnside Beach Hut for ice cream as you approach the village once again, then finish off at The Albion pub. The food and beer is excellent!

🕒 This walk was 8 miles in total so you need a good half day to do this.

🚗 Parking is free and unrestricted along the promenade in Arnside.

🗺️ Use OS Map OL7 (South East Lakes) to do this walk.

📌 Save this for your future walks inspiration in NW England.

04/04/2026

*NEW on the Blog*
Walk the North Shields Mural Trail. Here's all the deets on all 9 murals, plus a wealth of additional sculptures you'll see along the way!
Click through for your ideal walking route around the trail.🚶‍♀️‍➡️

Walk the North Shields Mural Trail and discover 9 stunning murals and many additional sculptures celebrating the fishing industry and rich maritime heritage of the town.

30/03/2026

Happy Cheshire Day! 🥳

Just a few of my fave snaps from around the county I've called home my whole life. Beautiful countryside, quaint towns, a wealth of historic buildings and lots of wonderful experiences just waiting to be had!

Love you Cheshire! 💚

28/03/2026

A sunny weekend in Kendal 🌞

Lots to see & do in this lovely little corner of Cumbria, often overlooked on the way past, to the lakes, fells and honeypot towns of Ambleside, Grasmere and Bowness.

Must do's in Kendal:

🚶🏼‍♀️A walk along the River Kent - scenic and easy access

⛪ Visit the beautiful parish church, the oldest building in Kendal

📍Seek out the wooden sculpture next to the church showing the earliest town map of Kendal. It's impressive!

🖼️ Abbot Hall Art Gallery - see my previous post for all the deets!

📚 Pop your head inside Carnegie Library

🛍️ Wander the high street - the shopping scene in Kendal is great! Look out for all the historical info boards - you learn a lot as you walk around!

➡️ Duck down all the alleyways, called 'yards' in Kendal - there's some surprisingly quaint little streets if you venture off the main road through.

☕ Grab hot chocolate and cake at Tilly's Cafe in Blackhall Shopping Yard

📚 Bookworms will love grabbing a bargain in the Kendal and District Lions Bookshop in Wainwright's Yard - all paperbacks are £1 and they have a massive range - only cash accepted though!

🏤 Visit the Kendal Museum for everything about local life & history.

🍹Grab lunch at The Tannery and enjoy a cocktail or mocktail on their elevated river sun terrace!

📽️ Check out the Brewery Arts Centre for their huge range of live music, theatre, comedy shows etc (as well as a cinema) and grab a drink in the Brewery Arts Bar & Restaurant. The pizza & burger menu here is next level!

🍺 Excellent pub grub at the Ring O'Bells pub - huge portions & great taste at very reasonable prices!

🍻 Both these last two venues have excellent local beer & lager on tap from the recently established Gan Yam Brewery. I would definitely return for more in a heartbeat!

🏰 Walk up to the castle - it's not far to walk from the town centre, or you can park round the other side and walk up from there (the short but steep option)
I did not go up on this trip as I went last year, but it's well worth it for the views and the castle ruins! I'll post some photos separately!

📌 SAVE for your next trip to Kendal!

25/03/2026

Abbot Hall is a Grade I listed Georgian building housing an art gallery in Kendal.

I was a teenager the last time I visited so this place has changed so much since then. I remember dark rooms filled with 18th century landscapes, but it's certainly not this any more.

The downstairs galleries are light and bright and currently display a portrait collection spanning 300 years, many of the works with a Lakeland connection.

There are many works by Cumbrian born artist George Romney and by European Modernist Kurt Schwitters that he created during his later years spent in the Lake District.

There's also a room dedicated to Lady Anne Clifford who inherited her family's castles at Skipton, Brougham and Pendragon. In addition to portraits done during her life, there are a series of modern architectural models to explore her inherited estates.

Throughout the gallery, the modern sits beautifully beside the historic and is clearly well thought out in it's curation.

Sadly my trip to Kendal this weekend coincided with a changeover in the temporary galleries, so only the downstairs was available to visit.

👛 Admission:
£12 Adult
£9 Student
£6 Child 5-15
Free Child 4 and under

I visited free with my Art Fund National Art Pass.

☕ There is a shop inside and a coffee shop on site through a different entrance and visitable without admission.

🚗 Parking onsite is chargeable, plus there's plenty of other parking around Kendal. Abbot Hall is easily accessible from the river path.

Lakeland Arts Abbot Hall

14/03/2026

There's more to the Headland in Hartlepool than meets the eye!

A great artistic trail of murals celebrating the maritime and coastal heritage of the area. 🌊

Some of the murals are prominent and easy to find, while others are tucked away and require a bit of detective work to locate...

Keep an eye out for my blog post coming soon with an easy set of directions to find the artworks and explore everything that the Headland has to offer! 💜

13/03/2026

A sunny moment at Hartlepool's Headland 🌤️
A fave area of mine to go for a walk when visiting! 🫶🏼

23/02/2026

Can't pass so close to Port Sunlight and not call in to Lady Lever Art Gallery. (For anyone visiting nearby Paper and Word , deffo check out Lady Lever!)

I discovered this place 3 years ago and now if I visit the area, something about this place pulls me back to revisit! You'd never guess looking at the exterior, just how stunning the interior is and what a varied collection is contained within. 🫶🏼

Founded by industrialist & philanthropist William Hesketh Lever, manufacturer of Sunlight Soap, who developed the whole village of Port Sunlight, not just the gallery for the benefit of his workers.

He amassed a huge collection of art works, decorative objects and furniture through his life, a lot of which are on display in Lady Lever. Of particular note to me is the excellent collection of Wedgewood ceramics, including some of the rarer lilac Jasperware which I love. There is a whole room dedicated to Wedgewood. 💜

I also love the Pre-Raphaelite art work especially paintings by Rossetti and Burne-Jones.

Have you visited this impressive gallery yet?

➡️ Open daily 10-5pm
💷 Free to visit, though donation recommended
🫖 Fantastic cafe in the basement level
🛍️ Shop with all sorts of wonderful gifts and art related merchandise
🚻 Loos on the main floor and basement level
🚗 Free parking
📍 Port Sunlight Village, Port Sunlight, Merseyside, CH62 5EQ

21/02/2026

Continuing to fuel my new found love of fantasy & Romantasy at the Paper and Word bookshop! 🫶🏼

I've finally started hitting up the places on my local 2026 bucket list, which you can find pinned to the top of my feed.

I was so excited to learn of this new bookshop last year, that is billed as the UK's first independent fantasy only bricks and mortar bookshop. And even better, it's not far from where I live, on the Wirral peninsula in Bebington, next to Port Sunlight.

It's even painted in gorgeous purple inside and out, my favourite colour! It has such a lovely relaxed vibe inside with a couple of comfy armchairs to devour your latest possible reads! 💜

The store divides its books into Epic, Dark, Romantasy, Magical Realism and Young Adult sections, with a 9-12 and young kids area too.

There's also lots of fantasy themed reading related merchandise from tote bags and bookmarks to kindle covers and reading journals.

I added to my TBR pile with books by TJ Klune and Olivie Blake, but I so could have bought more. I think I demonstrated incredible restraint! 🤣

Paper & Word is open 10 - 5pm Tuesday to Sunday with a large free carpark behind, so not far to carry those heavy bags full of books!! 🤩

Paper and Word