Looking for the best dog-friendly thing to do in Keswick when the weather turns? The Derwent Pencil Museum is the perfect rainy day activity for the whole family. This quirky children-friendly attraction takes you on a journey from the discovery of graphite to the world’s largest colour pencil, making it a must-see cultural stop in the heart of the Lake District.
This Friday Matt had a day off work for his birthday and we wanted to do something all together; however, the weather was so awful that it wasn’t possible to go for a walk. So we decided to visit the pencil museum in Keswick. We had never been there but I knew that they were dog friendly and I also had a discount with my Cumbria card so it was the perfect time to go there.
Find all the information about My Cumbria card, that offers discount to several places in Cumbria for local resident.
The museum is not big and the visit only takes 1h-1h30 but it is still nice and great for children as they have a drawing area where children and parents can stop and draw. The museum mainly explains the origin of graphite and the pencil manufacturing history in Keswick and Cumbria. There are several information panels and videos that provide all the information. There are also some display of tools, old boxes of pencils and a 8-meter long pencil. Additionally there is a shop and tearoom.
Find all the information to visit the Pencil Museum here. Family and dog friendly, car park on-site (fees apply).
We really enjoyed discovering the history of this little industry. Graphite was discovered around 1550 in the Borrowdale valley, around Castle Crag, and it was only from 1832 that pencils started to be produced in Keswick. In 1932, the first colour pencil was created and during the second world war maps were even hidden in pencils. In 2008 the Queen opened the new factory in Workington, in 2016 they obtained the “Made in Britain” marque and in 2021 the PEFC sustainable timber certification.
Read about our walk to Castle Crag summit here.
After the visit, as it was still raining heavily, we drove back home but we stopped at the Art Gallery and tea room in Thornthwaite for a light lunch. This is lovely gallery to visit with beautiful local painting and products and small dog friendly vegetarian tearoom.
Find all the information about Thornthwaite art gallery here.
Final Thoughts
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Our Lake District Escapades 
How neat! Many years ago I visited this museum as well. I keep finding it a kind of magic how they manage to stuff the graphite into the wooden casing. I remember bying a carpenter’s pencil for my friend the… well… carpenter. He, being half English, loved it. 🙂
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It is a nice gift indeed. The history of the place is fascinating.
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Although we have visited Keswick many times, we have never been to the Pencil Museum. We are saving it up for a really wet day and so far we have been lucky not to need it!
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I understand it is something to do during a rainy day. We have been living in Cumbria for 7 years now and only visit it last weekend 🤣.
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I can’t believe you haven’t had a rainy day in 7 years😉!
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🤣🤣🤣 We had plenty. It is just that now we need to find some indoor activities to keep Marcus busy whilst before we could binge a TV series 😁.
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A very interesting post. Thank you very much for sharing. 😊
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Thanks Lynette.
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A Pencil Museum – how delightful! I think this is the first pencil museum that I have heard of.
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To be honest I don’t know any other. It is a great place.
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Huh, interesting. The history of the pencil is definitely one of those things I never realized I didn’t know.
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There are many little museums like that around the world that make you realise that we don’t really know how things are made.
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What a good find. I love places like that. Last time I was in England, my wife and I visited Barometer World in Devon. It was a fabulous place, sadly now closed.
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That’s interesting 😊. I haven’t been to Devon yet.
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I grew up in Devon and Cornwall. It’s a beautiful area, though somewhat overrun in Summer.
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Yes it is very touristic.
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Trop cool ! Jamais entendu parler avant, mais c’est exactement le genre de pépite que j’aime découvrir !
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Un petit musée très intéressant 😊.
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I’ve wanted to go here for ages, it looks fun!
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It is 😊. Hope you can make it one day.
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What an interesting museum! I’ve never really given much thought as to where the humble pencil comes from, it’s cool there’s a museum dedicated to it.
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I was the same before going there. Learnt a lot about pencil.
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C’est un musée que j’aimerais beaucoup découvrir 🙂 Merci pour la découverte.
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Je pense que son histoire te plairait bien 😊.
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I always meant to go in there but we were usually walking when we were in the area. You would think I’d have found a rainy day, wouldn’t you?
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Ha ha yes we have a lot of raining day but are always busy doing other things. So only managed to visit it this year. There are plenty other museums in Cumbria we haven’t visited yet.
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I visited four years ago and to be honest I found it to be a bit of a disappointment so it’s nice to read your account of it. Although the history of pencil making itself was interesting it was lacking in the finer details of the history of the place itself and the lives of the people who once worked there. I think calling it a ‘museum’ is a bit of a misnomer, ‘collection’ would be a better way of describing the sets of pencils on display. I did like the world’s largest coloured pencil though. It’s rather an odd place which I wouldn’t revisit, however the Puzzling Place also in Keswick was much more fun – if you haven’t already been then maybe you should. I wrote about both places in July 2021.
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I understand what you are saying it is indeed a very high summary of the history of pencils making. I can recognise that if you are looking for a lot of details you might be disappointed. As we had a toddler running around for us it was enough details. We haven’t done the Puzzling place yet but Marcus went twice with his cousins when they visited us and they loved it. It is next on our list.
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Like you I remember taking the boys on a rainy day when staying in Braithwaite. Its fun for an hour or so, and always good to see where something is made, considering Lakeland pencils were everywhere when I was a boy
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I agree it is always nice to learn how things are made and nice for children.
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Bummer about the weather, but the museum sounds like it was fun to visit.
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Winter has been very rainy this year, hoping for some nice spring. Always nice to go to museum.
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We love the pencil museum and would always go there when the kids were young. In fact we were there in November on a trip to Keswick and Mish wanted to stock up on some art supplies!
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It is indeed a great place to buy art supplies plenty of great pencils. Unfortunately I don’t know how to draw.
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My family would love this museum! We are very big on pencils, with two mathematicians!
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This looks and sounds like a fun and interesting museum, and a good place to explore on a rainy day.
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It is an interesting museum indeed. Perfect for family.
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