GREAT houses, gardens and cultural attractions in and around the Lake District and elsewhere in the county celebrate this weekend's Heritage Open Days.

Many hidden treasures will be revealed, and to celebrate the esteemed event, the Wordsworth Trust invites all to a 'behind the scenes’ look at the Wordsworth Museum in Grasmere tomorrow (Friday) and Saturday (September 12).

From 11am, visitors will be able to get up close and personal with items from the large and internationally acclaimed collection of original manuscripts, books and paintings. All the artefacts are linked to poet William Wordsworth, his famous sister Dorothy, and the writers and artists known for their revolutionary ideas and art within British Romanticism.

Visitors can view, without the barriers of museum glass, the very pages on which Wordsworth’s poems were first written and the little notebooks in which Dorothy penned her Grasmere journal.

Plus, discover the important role that Wordsworth’s family played in his writing.

Art lovers can also get a glimpse of paintings from the trust's collection that rarely see the light of day such as JMW Turner's Ullswater, pieces by John Constable and works by lesser known travellers, who sketched as they toured.

For further information telephone 015394-35544 or see www.wordsworth.org.uk.

Elsewhere, Lakeland Arts offers Windermere Jetty: Project Updates, tomorrow (Friday, September 11) from 11am and 12.30pm, as part of Heritage Open Days. Booking essential (015394-46139) as places are limited to 15.

Over at Kendal's Abbot Hall, LA holds Windermere Film Night (tonight, Thursday, 6.30pm-7.30pm), which features archive film footage, photography and stories about amazing feats on Windermere. The events also includes information on how Lakeland Arts is transforming Windermere Steamboat Museum into Windermere Jetty (bookings 01539-722464).

Earlier, at Brockhole (2pm), visitors can meet one of Windermere Jetty’s conservation or curatorial team who will discuss the processes behind the delicate conservation of its internationally and nationally significant boat collection.

Meanwhile, among the many others taking part in Heritage Open Days will be Cartmel Priory Gatehouse, which will open its doors for visitors on Saturday and Sunday (10am-4pm); the gatehouse was built around c.1330 and is a must-see for history enthusiasts.

Dalton Castle also flings its doors wide open this weekend under the Heritage Open Days banner, from 10am-4pm, on Saturday and Sunday. The 14th Century tower was formerly the manorial courthouse of Furness Abbey, where the abbott exercised his right to hold manorial courts and administer justice within the lordship of Furness, as authorised by the abbey's foundation charter of 1127. The building would have contained not only the courtroom and one or two other rooms in which the business of the lordship was transacted, but also a gaol, guardrooms and stores. The castle was given to the National Trust by the eighth Duke of Buccleuch in 1965.