Ruskin Monument

The Ruskin Monument stands on Friars’ Crag, a wooded promontory that juts into Derwentwater near Keswick. A single block of Borrowdale stone marks the spot, chosen to echo the standing crosses of early Celtic Christians in Galloway. Hardwicke Rawnsley organised its erection shortly after John Ruskin’s death in 1900. The stone faces the lake that Ruskin himself called one of the three most beautiful scenes in Europe. On one side a Chi-Rho cross is carved in the manner of the earliest Christian monuments. Beneath it runs an inscription from Ruskin’s own writing about the spirit of God revealed in air, light and earth. On the opposite face a bronze medallion by Signor Lucchesi shows Ruskin in profile as he appeared in the early 1870s. Olive leaves surround the portrait and the word ‘To-day’ appears above his head. Visitors reach the monument along a short path through oak and birch woodland. The stone rises naturally from the ground, its rough surface blending with the rocky shore. From the crag the view stretches across the lake to the surrounding fells. The inscriptions and portrait face the water, so that Ruskin’s words and image are framed by the scene he loved.