Peel Island, Cumbria facts for kids
Peel Island is a small island located in Coniston Water, a beautiful lake in the Lake District area of Cumbria, England. It's one of three islands in the lake, the others being Fir Island and Oak Island. Peel Island is very special because it helped inspire the famous "Wild Cat Island" in Arthur Ransome's popular book Swallows and Amazons. Today, many people visit Peel Island, and it is looked after by the National Trust, an organization that protects important places in the UK.
Island History
Peel Island has been cared for by the National Trust since 1932. It was given to them by a person called John Montagu-Douglas-Scott, 7th Duke of Buccleuch. He also gave them about 11 acres of nearby woodland. This means the island is now protected for everyone to enjoy.
Wild Cat Island Connection
Peel Island is thought to be one of the main inspirations for the fictional "Wild Cat Island" in the well-loved 1930 book Swallows and Amazons and its sequel books, all written by Arthur Ransome.
A person named Taqui Altounyan, who was the sister of Roger Altounyan, described Peel Island in her own book. She said it looked "like a green tuffet, sitting in the water, the trees covering the rocks." Taqui was also one of the real-life inspirations for a character in the Swallows and Amazons stories.
The island also appears in another novel called Thorstein of the Mere, A Saga of the Northmen in Lakeland, written by W. G. Collingwood. Arthur Ransome first met the Collingwood family on Peel Island when he was only eight years old. This meeting was very important because Collingwood's grandchildren later became the models for some of the main characters in Ransome's Swallows and Amazons books.
