Wigton

Wigton is a good-value, low-key base for exploring both the northern Lake District and the Solway coast, without the premium prices of the honeypot Lakeland towns. The town itself has a handful of traditional options, and the surrounding villages and countryside offer a wider choice of small hotels and bed and breakfasts, many in converted farmhouses or historic buildings that reflect the area's Georgian and Victorian past. Expect straightforward, comfortable Cumbrian hospitality rather than boutique luxury: working farms turned B&Bs, family-run guesthouses, and the odd historic coaching inn on the old market town's High Street.

Because Wigton sits inland on the Solway Plain rather than on a lake or in the fells, accommodation here tends to be quieter and better value than in Keswick, Windermere or Ambleside, while still being within a manageable drive of both. It suits visitors who want a genuine, unpolished market-town base — somewhere to sleep and eat well after a day exploring the coast or the fells, rather than a destination resort in its own right. Booking ahead is sensible in peak summer months and around local market days, though Wigton rarely sees the kind of demand pressure that pushes up prices in the central Lake District.

Wigton itself is a small town best explored on foot, but it is also a gateway — to the Solway coast in one direction and the northern Lake District fells in the other. Here are some of the best things to see and do in and around the town.

• Wigton Market Square and High Street — the heart of the old market town, lined with Georgian buildings including several Grade II listed inns, and still home to a memorial fountain and regular market trading that dates back to a charter granted in 1262.
• Highmoor — a striking Victorian mansion built in 1885 for the Banks family, notable for its clock tower and carillon bell known locally as "Big Joe"; it has since been converted into flats but remains a Wigton landmark.
• John Peel Theatre — home to Wigton Theatre Club since 1952, and the town's focal point for amateur drama and community events.
• Solway Coast National Landscape — the AONB-designated coastline a short drive north of Wigton, offering huge skies, saltmarsh, and views across the Solway Firth to the Scottish hills.
• RSPB Campfield Marsh — a nature reserve on the Solway shore that began with a 52-hectare saltmarsh purchase in 1987 and has since grown to 335 hectares of saltmarsh, peat bog, farmland and wet grassland, rich in wading birds and wildfowl, particularly in winter.
• Wigton railway station and the Cumbrian Coast Line — while a functional rather than scenic asset in town, the line itself threads out along some of Cumbria's least-visited coastal scenery towards Maryport, Workington and beyond.
• The northern Lake District — Wigton's inland position means the fells around Bassenthwaite and Keswick, and the quieter valleys of the northern Lakes, are within a manageable drive, without the need to stay in the busier honeypot towns.

Wigton's High Street retains several historic coaching inns and pubs that reflect the town's Georgian heritage. The Lion, on the High Street, occupies a late 18th-century Grade II listed building and has served as one of the town's principal hotels and pubs for generations. Nearby, the Kildare is another Grade II listed High Street building with a long history as a town-centre hotel, while the Hare and Hounds on West Street occupies a late 17th or early 18th-century listed building. Together they give Wigton a solid core of traditional Cumbrian pub food and a proper local atmosphere, in keeping with a working market town rather than a tourist resort.

Wigton's flat, open surroundings on the Solway Plain make it a practical rather than dramatic base for campers, but its position between the Lake District fells and the Solway coast means there is plenty to justify a stay. As in the rest of England, wild camping is not a legal right and pitching up without the landowner's permission is technically trespass, so plan to use one of the established campsites, caravan parks or certified sites in and around the town rather than pitching in the open countryside.

Several caravan and camping parks operate in the villages around Wigton, offering a mix of touring pitches, static caravans and, increasingly, glamping options such as pods and safari tents for those who want a more comfortable stay without a tent of their own. The gently rolling, low-lying countryside of the Solway Plain makes for straightforward, sheltered camping compared with the more exposed fellside sites further into the Lake District, and the flat terrain and quiet lanes around Wigton are well suited to cycling and walking as part of a camping trip.

The best camping season here runs from late spring through to early autumn, broadly May to September, when day length and the chance of settled weather are both at their best; as with anywhere in Cumbria, waterproofs are advisable whatever the forecast. Wigton's inland, sheltered position means it often escapes the worst of the weather that can affect exposed coastal or high fell sites, making it a sensible fallback base when conditions elsewhere in Cumbria turn. For those touring the region, a Wigton-area campsite offers an easy springboard to the Solway coast reserves, the northern Lakes around Bassenthwaite, and Carlisle, without the pitch fees or crowds of sites closer to the honeypot towns.