Experience the best of Kendal

Kendal is a market town on the River Kent in Cumbria, built mostly of grey limestone, which earned it the nickname of the Auld Grey Town. Its wool trade made it rich from the Middle Ages: the cloth called Kendal green was famous enough to be named by Shakespeare, and the town's motto means cloth is my bread. Narrow alleys called yards run off the main street beneath arches.

Abbot Hall, a Georgian house beside the river, is an art gallery with works by George Romney, who lived in Kendal, and the ruins of Kendal Castle stand on a hill above the town. Sizergh Castle, a medieval tower in gardens, and Levens Hall, an Elizabethan house with topiary laid out in the 1690s, lie a short way south, and Windermere is to the west. A mountain film festival comes to Kendal each November.

Kendal mint cake, a peppermint sweet, is the town's best-known product, a favourite of walkers and climbers and carried on polar and Everest expeditions. Pubs serve hearty Lakeland dishes with local ales. The hills to the west catch much of the rain, and the town is somewhat drier than the central Lakes.