A Rainy Day in Keswick with Dogs: Optical Illusions, Secret Pencils and a Pub Finish

Rain is running down the windows. The fells have vanished. Someone has said, “It might brighten up later,” with absolutely no conviction.

Meanwhile, Keswick has rooms that appear to defy gravity, pencils with wartime secrets and a pub where the dog can join you inside.

This is a day for curiosity. For laughing at photographs of each other, discovering something gloriously unexpected and finishing over food and drinks while the weather does whatever it likes.

Start at The Puzzling Place, explore the Derwent Pencil Museum, then finish with a meal at Oddfellows Arms.

Your dog is invited to the lot.

Start with something wonderfully baffling

Tucked away in Museum Square, The Puzzling Place is the sort of attraction that gets everyone calling across the room.

“Come here. Look at this.”

“No, stand over there.”

“How is that even possible?”

Its World of Illusion brings together rooms, images and exhibits designed to play tricks on your perception. There’s an Anti-gravity Room, an Ames Room, holograms and a collection of visual puzzles that make looking at things a surprisingly unreliable business.

In the Ames Room, people appear to grow and shrink as they move across the space. Suddenly, the smallest member of the family can loom over everyone else. Anyone who has spent years being asked to reach the top shelf may find this deeply satisfying.

Elsewhere, balls appear to roll uphill and holograms give flat images an extraordinary sense of depth. Knowing there must be an explanation doesn’t spoil the effect. You can understand that your eyes are being fooled and still find yourself staring in delighted disbelief.

It’s playful, sociable and an excellent excuse for adults to stop being sensible for a while.

The dog may wonder why everyone is making such a fuss. For once, you’re the ones being entertained by something that doesn’t make sense.

Everyone gets to come inside

Well-behaved dogs on short leads are welcome at The Puzzling Place, and they enter free.

It’s worth knowing that this is a first-floor attraction reached by stairs. It can also get busy when rain and school holidays coincide; the attraction recommends arriving around opening on those days. Expect other curious visitors and a bit of bustle rather than the hush of a quiet gallery.

That shared sense of discovery is part of the fun. Someone else’s astonished expression can be almost as entertaining as the exhibit itself.

Then discover why a pencil deserves its own museum

The next stop is the Derwent Pencil Museum.

Yes, pencils. Stay with us.

There’s something irresistible about an attraction devoted to an object so familiar that most people barely think about it. A pencil lives in a drawer, disappears when needed and occasionally turns up behind the sofa. Surely that’s the whole story?

Apparently, it has been keeping rather a lot to itself.

The museum begins with a replica graphite mine and follows the development of pencil-making from a cottage industry to modern production. Among its exhibits are secret Second World War pencils containing hidden maps, miniature pencil sculptures and a colour pencil measuring almost eight metres.

A pencil big enough to stop you in your tracks. Pencils ingenious enough to conceal something important. Suddenly, that ordinary object looks considerably more interesting.

Small objects, extraordinary stories

After the visual mischief of The Puzzling Place, the Pencil Museum gives the afternoon a different rhythm.

There’s time to look closely and let an unexpected detail catch your attention. The wartime pencils are particularly compelling: such an everyday object, carrying something far beyond its everyday purpose.

You don’t need to be an artist or a stationery enthusiast to enjoy that. Although anyone who has ever felt the pleasure of opening a pristine tin of coloured pencils may find the gift shop rather difficult to resist.

The museum has a Derwent shop, and well-behaved dogs are welcome in the museum. So you can enjoy the exhibits together, then consider whether this is the holiday on which you finally buy that sketchbook.

There are worse souvenirs than a little creative ambition.

A town-sized adventure

Both attractions are in Keswick, so this outing stays comfortably rooted in town. There are short outdoor stretches between stops, giving the dog a chance to stretch their legs without turning the day into a long, wet walk.

Browse a shop if something catches your eye. Pause when you fancy it. There’s no need to hurry through one attraction simply to tick off the next.

By the time thoughts turn to food, you’ll have plenty to discuss. Someone will still be trying to explain the room where everyone changed size. Someone else will have become unexpectedly enthusiastic about graphite.

Fortunately, dinner is close at hand.

Finish with a proper pub meal at Oddfellows Arms

Oddfellows Arms sits on Main Street, right in the town centre. This traditional Marston’s pub has real ales and a broad menu of familiar favourites, including fish and chips, steaks, burgers and curries, alongside lighter bites and desserts.

It’s a sociable town-centre pub with sports screens, suited to a relaxed meal after an afternoon out.

There’s a particular pleasure in reaching this stage of a rainy day. Coats off. Drinks ordered. Dog settled. A menu in front of you and no pressing reason to go anywhere else.

Dogs are welcome throughout the pub, and food is currently served daily from noon until 8pm. If you’re planning to eat at a popular time, book a table and mention your dog.

Then the only difficult decision is whether there’s room for pudding.

The forecast doesn’t get the final say

Some days in the Lake District are about enormous views. This one is about small surprises.

The moment someone apparently doubles in size. The exhibit that makes you call everyone back. The discovery that a pencil has a secret history. The dog curling up beside your chair while the humans happily pick the afternoon apart.

Check current opening days before setting off, especially in winter, then give yourself permission to enjoy Keswick indoors.

You may have started the morning looking wistfully at the clouds. By dinner, there’s every chance you’ll have forgotten to check whether they’ve lifted.