Rock up to NT Fell Foot Park on Saturday August 17 and enjoy some brilliant family fun on the southern shores of lake Windermere in the Lake District, encompassing stone skimming, a rock treasure hunt and other stone-themed and outdoor activities.
The charity fundraising All England Stone Skimming Championships take place that day, enticing all-comers to pick up their stones and skim. This addictive activity, based on skills handed down through the generations will, as always, have a multi-generational feel, as children take on their siblings, whilst parents challenge the grans and grandads.
All stones legally skimmed on the day (skipping on the water a minimum of three times and keeping within a lane on the lake) will have a length recorded in the official All England Stone Skimming Championship record books. Each entry provides the participant with three stones and they can enter as many times as they wish.
Four categories each offer the chance to become a champion – Under 10s, 11-16s, women’s and men’s. Whilst elite skimmers lead the way in the latter, with the distance to beat to scoop a record being 95 metres, set by Scot Alex Lewis last year, the ‘peloton’ of stone skimmers will have its own mini-battles, whether these are within families, amongst friends, or against strangers.
Meanwhile, special painted championship stones have been hidden around Fell Foot Park, enticing families to seek them out in a rock treasure hunt. If children find a stone, they can trade it in for three stones to skim in the championships.
Each ‘go’, providing three stones to skim, costs £3 for an adult and £1 for a child. Skimming will start at 11am and finish at 4pm, with the medal presentation around 5pm. Registration is on the day, so rock up, have tremendous family fun and help raise money for river conservation in the South Lakes, through organisers South Cumbria Rivers Trust.
More information is at https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/fell-foot/whats-on
