Penrith is part of that package of England known as the Lake District, but apart from it as well.

Tucked up there in the top right-hand corner of Lakeland, it has easy access to Ullswater just a five-minute drive away and is the place where motorists turn left off the northbound M6 on to the A66 for a fast drive to Keswick.

Yet although Penrith looks over the Lake District fells, it is really a market town surrounded by agriculture. Drive north or east from it and you are in rolling fields: wide-open countryside dotted with farms and pretty villages.

Penrith itself has its fair share of prettiness. When we were there, the finishing touches were being put to the refurbishment of the cobbled town square, off which an alley leads to a picturesque close looping round the church.

There are plenty of shops, pubs and restaurants in Penrith, and a ruined castle too. It's a good spot to spend a few hours, which we did on the second day of our weekend break (the first day had been spent walking around Ullswater) before heading off into the countryside.

Our first port of call was a visit to Long Meg and Her Daughters. They were at home. They never go anywhere. Haven't done for many long centuries. The daughters stand there up to their waists in the long grass, rooted to the spot, while the taller Long Meg watches over them.

This is a large, remarkable oval of 59 standing stones (though some have fallen over), tucked away at the end of a farm lane above the village of Langwathby. Alongside it, an enterprising farmer has set aside half a field for pick-your-own raspberries, tempting those who go along to visit the stones.

It's hard to resist the fruit, growing so profusely at chest height. We intended to pick a couple of pounds at £1 each. When we went to have our baskets weighed, the cost was £8.70!

Next stop was Acorn Bank, a National Trust property near Newbiggin famed for its walled herb garden. There's a formal round pond in the grounds where all three British species of newts breed. A woodland walk takes you down to a water mill which is well on the way to being restored.

A few miles along the A66 from there, we took the turn-off for Appleby-in-Westmorland. This town is best known for its annual Horse Fair, when gipsies by the hundred take over the place and distort its nature. But once they have gone away, it can revert to being itself again: a pretty little town with a river running through it and a castle on top of its hill.

The alms houses, built by Lady Anne Clifford, surround a courtyard with a fountain as its centre-piece and floral displays in the borders in front of each well-kept cottage.

As we walked down the road from them, a red squirrel ran up the far pavement before scrambling over a wall into a garden.

We loved Appleby, and vowed to return there before long for a weekend's exploration of the town and its surroundings. But by now it was time to turn for home, driving down the B6260 to meet the M6 at Tebay. This minor route turned out to be one of the most stunning roads we've ever driven along: a ridge road, offering a 360-degree view of the wide-open spaces.

We pulled over as it dropped down towards Orton and savoured the silence and the scenery as the rounded tops of the Howgills stretched away to the South.

Down in the valley bottom a farmer was shouting his commands to his dogs as they divided a flock of sheep and drove them to opposite corners of a field.

In the distance the sun glinted on the cars and lorries streaming down the M6. Too soon we had left this Paradise and were among them.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.