Peel Island is one of the three islands of Coniston Water

Coniston Water

Coniston Water in Cumbria, England is the third largest lake in the English Lake District. It is five miles long, half a mile wide, has a maximum depth of 184 feet , and covers an area of . The lake has an elevation of 143 feet above sea level...

 in the English Lake District

Lake District

The Lake District, also commonly known as The Lakes or Lakeland, is a mountainous region in North West England. A popular holiday destination, it is famous not only for its lakes and its mountains but also for its associations with the early 19th century poetry and writings of William Wordsworth...

, Cumbria

Cumbria

Cumbria , is a non-metropolitan county in North West England. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local authority, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. Cumbria's largest settlement and county town is Carlisle. It consists of six districts, and in...

. The two others are Fir Island (which is connected to the shore unless the water is particularly high) and Oak Island. It is most famous for being the inspiration for Arthur Ransome

Arthur Ransome

Arthur Michell Ransome was an English author and journalist, best known for writing the Swallows and Amazons series of children's books. These tell of school-holiday adventures of children, mostly in the Lake District and the Norfolk Broads. Many of the books involve sailing; other common subjects...

's Wild Cat Island. Today, it is a popular tourist destination, and belongs to the National Trust

National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty

The National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, usually known as the National Trust, is a conservation organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland...

.

History

Peel Island has belonged to the National Trust

National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty

The National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, usually known as the National Trust, is a conservation organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland...

 since it was given to them by John Montagu-Douglas-Scott, 7th Duke of Buccleuch, along with 11 acres (4.5 ha) of woodland, in 1932. In 1967, Donald Campbell

Donald Campbell

Donald Malcolm Campbell, CBE was a British speed record breaker who broke eight world speed records in the 1950s and 1960s...

 died near Peel Island while trying to set a world water speed record

Water speed record

The World Unlimited water speed record is the officially recognised fastest speed achieved by a water-borne vehicle. The current record of 511 km/h was achieved in 1978....

 with a speed in excess of 300 miles per hour (134.1 m/s). The final words of his transmission from his boat, Bluebird, were:

Wild Cat Island

Peel Island is considered to be the original of the fictional Wild Cat Island in the Swallows and Amazons

Swallows and Amazons

Swallows and Amazons is the first book in the Swallows and Amazons series by Arthur Ransome; it was first published in 1930, with the action taking place in the summer of 1929 in the Lake District...

books of Arthur Ransome

Arthur Ransome

Arthur Michell Ransome was an English author and journalist, best known for writing the Swallows and Amazons series of children's books. These tell of school-holiday adventures of children, mostly in the Lake District and the Norfolk Broads. Many of the books involve sailing; other common subjects...

. Taqui Altounyan, sister of Roger Altounyan

Roger Altounyan

Roger Edward Collingwood Altounyan was an Armenian physician and pharmacologist who pioneered the use of sodium cromoglycate as a remedy for asthma...

 and inspiration for one of the characters in Swallows and Amazons, described Peel Island in her semi-biographical novel In Aleppo Once as "like a green tuffet, sitting in the water, the trees covering the rocks". The island also features in W. G. Collingwood

W. G. Collingwood

William Gershom Collingwood, was an author, artist, antiquary and Professor of Fine Arts at Reading University....

's novel Thorstein of the Mere, A Saga of the Northmen in Lakeland. Ransome, at the age of eight, first met the Collingwoods at a family picnic on Peel Island: a chance meeting that would prove to have important consequences in Ransome's later life, with Collingwood's grandchildren providing a model for significant characters in Swallows and Amazons.