20 October 2025: The Places That Puzzle Me: A Lakeland Mystery Reflection
Hello again, fellow seekers of the logic and order in this mad world.
Mae usually write about how to spot when someone is telling a lie in a timetable or how to decode Morse Code from the past. But today I want to talk about something bigger: the places themselves where me and my sister, Isla, have been caught up in the mysteries recorded in The Lakeland Mysteries. The Lake District isn’t just where I live, it’s where mysteries seem to gather like mist on the fells. Or, as my father would say, where me and my sister deliberately seem to attract trouble. And if you’ve read our stories, you’ll know that each refers to real places that me and my family get to in our everyday lives, simply going about our business as usual, be it school, or the places we go walking, or visiting my Nana. All within easy reach for us young ones and our parents. But even in the aisles of our local Sainsbury’s in Cockermouth there are sometimes strange whispers. Something off. Something worth investigating.
Mae been thinking about the Ellery Queen rule lately—the one that says “where there are two anomalies in the same town at the same time, they are cognates of each other.” That’s not just a clever idea. It’s a way of seeing the world. And it’s how I look at the Lake District now: not just as home, but as a map of mysteries waiting to be connected.
So, here’s a tour through the Lakeland mystery inspiration behind each book. These are real places in crime books; well, our crime books anyway, and they’re all part of our British crime fiction setting, if our publisher is to be believed (and I never really believe anyone). Anyway, some of the places where suspicious things have happened are ancient, some industrial, some just plain weird. But all of them made me ask: why here?
Cockermouth & Slate Fell — The Fire on Slate Fell
This was our first proper mystery, and it started with a fake fire and a real treasure. Slate Fell looms over Cockermouth like it’s keeping secrets. The bikers, the museum curator, the white van—all of it felt like a puzzle dropped into a quiet town. But Cockermouth isn’t just quiet. It’s layered. Roman roads, Georgian facades, and a history of rebellion.
Ennerdale & Sellafield — The Wolf of Ennerdale
Ennerdale is wild. Not just in the hiking sense, but in the mythic sense. The valley has no pubs, no shops, and no signal. But it does have stories—like the 1810 legend of the wolf that stalked the sheep and vanished without a trace. But that’s not exactly where our mystery gets its name, although the Nom de Guerre of the villain Vladimir Volkov, “the Wolf” did chime eerily with the “Girt Beast of Ennerdale” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girt_dog_of_Ennerdale. And when two strange things happened there at once, finding the robotic bot in Ennerdale Water and then the Commander coming looking for it at our house, I knew they were connected to Sellafield. And that hit close to home. Both my parents work at Sellafield, the nuclear site near Seascale. It’s not spooky in the usual way—it’s all fences and forms and fluorescent lights. But it’s also full of stories. Industrial ones. Scientific ones. And sometimes, secret ones.
Whitehaven, Parton & Wray Castle— The Lad in the Lane
My Nana lives in Parton and her neighbour Bobby’s visions chimed with our own glimpses of a ghostly boy who ultimately led us to Wray Castle and St Margaret’s church in Bowness. Whitehaven, just down the coast from Parton, added its own shadows. The port town’s history of smuggling and industry made it the perfect backdrop for a mystery about hidden ownership and forgotten rights. And Bobby’s visions weren’t just dreams—they were clues.
Spout Force & The Trout Inn – The Mystery of the Chemic Tavern
When Dad roped us in to helping extract beer bottles from Spout Force Waterfall in Whinlatter Park, and then we saw a woman with the same tattoo as a craft beer maker whose beer had made everyone sick at The Trout Inn near our house in Cockermouth, again, we saw a connection. Isla (and I have to credit her) made the final connections with her amazing eyesight (obliged to admit that) where she could see that the lady lecturing at Castlegate House Art Gallery couldn’t properly explain the yellow tints in the paintings (spoiler alert!!).
Rydal Cave — The Vanishing Young of Rydal Cave
Rydal Cave is curious as well as eerie. It is not really a cave, but rather a former mine. Tourists take selfies there. But if you stand still, you’ll hear the drip of water and the echo of something older. The cave was quarried for slate, but it feels like a place that remembers things. When UFO investigators started vanishing at the same time as strange lights appeared over our heads, and we picked up ghostly Morse Code on Grandad’s ham radio, and no one believed they were connected, I thought of Ellery Queen again. Two anomalies. Same place. Same time. Cognates. That’s when the cave started talking.
Why It Matters
These Lake District mystery novels aren’t just stories. They’re maps of meaning. Each location gave us a clue—not just to the mystery, but to the way people live, remember, and forget. Whether it’s a fell, a cave, a tavern, or a nuclear site, the land holds its own logic. And if you listen closely, it’ll tell you what’s wrong. So do have a look at the photographs and captions under each book here on this site. You will see the people and places that inspired the books in real life.
So next time you visit the Lakes, don’t just look at the view. Look for the anomaly. Look for the second one. And then ask: what do they mean together?
Until next time, Mae (and thank you Isla for the illustration)
1 June 2025: Hello! I am Mae Donaldson. Thank you for reading my blog. The Headmistress at my school, Clear Lawn Primary, has given us strict instructions about Social Media and we did some lessons in STEM Class about being safe online. I find these kinds of rules very helpful. So, I wanted to share with you some of the other rules that I find help me help other people in different situations. We seem to have a lot of situations here in Cockermouth. I don’t know why these mysteries seem to happen only to us, but my uncle chronicles them in The Lakeland Mysteries. Anyway, here are some of my basic approaches to dealing with things:
- Standing Up for Justice: It is important to advocate what’s right, even when it’s unpopular or challenging. I always tell myself, “I won’t back down from speaking the truth, even if others disagree.”
- Empowering Others: Mae see moral courage as not just about my own actions but helping others find their voice. What I tend to say is, “If I stand tall, I can inspire someone else to do the same.”
- Facing Fears Head-On: My mantra is, “I am not afraid— Mae choose to face fear and act with purpose.” For me, courage is about pushing through self-doubt.
- Compassionate Advocacy: Mae view moral courage as empathy in action, helping those who are vulnerable or overlooked. I tend to say, “It’s not just about being brave—it’s about being kind.” Actually, Mae hate it when people belittle others. We should all treat each other with kindness in our words and deeds.
- Integrity Over Approval: Mae believe in staying true to my beliefs, even if it means risking judgment. “I’d rather be honest and true than liked for pretending.”
It is also important to have general good manners, so thank you to Mae sister Isla for the drawings in my blog. Little sisters can occasionally be helpful.
