🏠 IndoorEducationalMemberships available
What’s there
- Café on site
- Paid parking
- Baby changing
- Dogs welcome
The car park outside is not owned or run by the museum; ANPR cameras are in use and payment is required on arrival, per the museum's site.
Only facilities we’ve confirmed are listed — anything missing here we simply haven’t checked, rather than know to be absent.
The Derwent Pencil Museum sits on the site of the old Cumberland Pencil factory in Keswick and tells the story of graphite, from its discovery in the Borrowdale valley to modern pencil production. Visitors pass through a replica graphite mine at the entrance, then follow displays covering the cottage-industry beginnings and the factory processes that came later. Highlights include one of the largest coloured pencils in the world, a pencil made for a Diamond Jubilee, and the WW2 secret map pencils that were hollowed out to hide escape maps. There are miniature pencil sculptures and interactive elements aimed at younger visitors, and the museum describes itself as a good day out for the family. A coffee shop and a gift shop sit alongside the displays. The museum is a compact, indoor visit that suits a rainy afternoon as well as a stop during a Lake District trip.
Stuff to take with you
The things people wish they’d packed for a day out like this one.
Refillable water bottleMost places will fill it for free.
Snacks that survive a rucksackCheaper than the café, and buys you twenty minutes.
Wet wipes
Small first aid kitPlasters solve more days out than anything else here.
Refillable coffee cupA lot of cafés knock money off.- Sudocrem
AntihistamineStings and pollen, both far from a pharmacy.
Plasters
Tissues- Audiobook or story CD
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Photos: 維基小霸王, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Renée Kools, CC BY 4.0 · Web-Betty, CC BY 2.0
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