The valleys of the Lake District

The valleys of the southeastern fell country are amongst the finest of the Lake District and again glaciation has played its part in moulding their formLake District Honeymoon Hotel
. Perhaps they lack some of the grandeur and splendid ruggedness of Borrowdale or Great Langdale but their unspoiled character more than makes amends. Apart from Troutbeck, immediately north of Windermere, they are all blind and thus saved from the effects of through traffic. Their narrow roads, little more than a track in the case of Bannisdale and not even that in Crookdale , tend to discourage penetration so that to some extent this is a relatively unknown corner of the Lake District.

Things might have been different if the main west coast railway line to Scotland had been driven through Long Sleddale.

Long Sleddale is one of the more attractive of these eastern valleys, with the wild ruggedness at its head gradually giving way to softer contours near the southern entrance. The contrasting valley section is largely a reflection of the change in rock type and the way in which it has reacted to various external influences like glaciation. In its upper part above Sad gill, it is the Borrowdale Volcanic series which out¬crop, while downstream the Silurian slates, grits and flags take over. The glacier which once flowed down the valley has left its mark in both sections, though to different effect. Almost immediately above Sadgill hamlet there is a terminal moraine cut through by the River Sprint. The morainic debris is piled against a rock bar projecting into the valley from both sides at this point.

Upstream the river flows across a wide, open flat and to prevent flooding has had to be artifici ally straightened. The valley flat marks the site of a temporary glacial lake, and its richer alluvial soils carry crops. Beyond lies the unreclaimed part of the valley, and it still retains its marshy character. Towards the valley head the floor rises steadily, as a rock step, coinciding with hard lava beds, is reached. Near the old Wren gill slate quarries  the colliding across into the Haweswater valley begins. To the east there is a similar break in the valley wall leading across to the head of Mosedale. Both cols must have been lowered by ice passing through them as diffluent tongues from the main glacier pushed out in various directions.

Below sad gill in the softer country associated with the Silurian strata the valley is more open though still possessing steep sides. In its journey towards the sea the River Sprint passes through a succession of basins and intervening rock barriers. From a point near where the Stockdale branch enters , as far as Wad's Howe Farm, the flat floor suggests a former lake basin. The farm lies on a side moraine which later crosses the valley and restricts the former lake flat. Between here and Ubarrow chapel  there is another basin. The chapel and nearby school lie on a moraine extending across the valley floor. Downstream from here and around Ubarrow Hall the open character of the lower part of Long Sleddale is well displayed. This is rich, well-farmed country.

At Bridge End Farm , however, the valley becomes restricted once again and between here and Nether House (514°°4 the River Sprint flows through a small gorge. The farms in this section lie on a distinct bench, which represents an old valley floor level well above the present river. Glacial erratic's, mainly flags, litter some of the fields, especially behind Nether House Farm, and must have been much more extensive before systematic clearance took place for farming. Yet another former lake basin lies below the farm, but within a quarter of a mile the river has begun to cut deeply into it and enter a steepened section of its course. Below Garnett Bridge a true gorge is developed before the river finally breaks out of its restricted valley to enter the glacial lowland country which extends to Kendal and beyond.

Hiking in Wasdale and Ennerdale Valleys in the Lake District Feb 2010

This is a low level (we dont have crampons or ice axes) hike me and Jack did in the Lake District (Feb 2010). We started in Ennerdale Valley, camping by the lake on the first night. The next day we walked up the valley and over Black Sail Pass into Wasdale Valley. We found a lovely camp spot low down near Riscon Falls we where played in the snow as the sun set. We started late (to warm and cosy in our sleeping bags!) and walked up the Nether beck River and found another superb camp spot perched on the top of the river gorge. After another late start we made our way up the south ridge of Haycock, and then traversed around the SW side when we hit the snow line (this way we could play in the snow but also skirt round it if needed). Our last camp sport rates as one the best mornings I had wild camping due to watching the sunrise over the snow caped mountains illuminating Ennerdale valley with golden rays beneath a blue sky, all from the comfort of my sleeping bag in my tent!
Video Rating: 5 / 5

Me and Lucy camping at Low Wray campsite near Ambleside in the Lake District

Lake District valleys

Above the Coniston Limestone beds, the Stockdale Shale's are also relatively soft and easily eroded so that a major topographic break occurs at the junction of the Borrowdale Volcanic Series and the Silurian rocks. Valleys like Kentmere and Long Sled dale , which run through both types of rock, show contrasting scenery in their different sections.luxury themed boutique hotels in the lake district Whereas their lower parts have a soft landscape with relatively smooth green slopes and only occasional bare rock outcrops, the upper portions are a wilderness of crags, rocky buttresses and massive screes.

The geological boundary is equally distinct on the west side of Coniston Water, near Coniston itself .

Towering above the town are the slopes culminating in the Old Man, all formed of volcanic beds. Closer at hand, by the side of Yew dale Beck, long ribs oflava run down the hill¬side and rocky buttresses like Long Crag  leave no doubt of the presence of the Borrowdale Volcanic Series. The vale of Yew dale Beck and the softer outlines of the country to the east come as an abrupt change once the Silurian strata is reached. The same discontinuity in landscape types is apparent to the southwest of Coniston along the approximate line of the prehistoric Walna Scar Road by the side of Mealy Beck.

To the south and east of this boundary, the Silurian country stretches away in a series of plateau at different heights. A prominent surface occurs at about 800 ft and shows up well to the east of Coniston Water. Elsewhere, at a lower level, a more broken and hummocky topography has developed. Where hard grit bands occur they often give rise to a series of rocky knolls, many of which have been smoothed by the passage of ice. In between are small walled fields interspersed with rough pasture in the more ill drained hollows. This is the type of landscape which is well seen on either side of the main road between Staveley and Windermere and also in the area around Under barrow, where even the contours of the Ordnance Survey map bring out the broken character of the countryside.

In the Under barrow area it is the Kirkby Moor Flags, the uppermost beds of the Silurian succession, which are largely responsible. These same beds also outcrop to the east of Kendal where they form Hay Fell, crowned by the crags of Benson Knott . Another bed of wide¬spread occurrence is the Bannisdale Slates which forms much of the area around Windermere. This formation is over five thousand feet thick and is characterized by alternating bands of sandy mudstone and hard grit, giving it a stepped appear¬ance which is readily recognizable in the field.

Good views are lacking in the area largely because many parts are now covered with conifer plantations. On the steep edges of the hills deciduous woodland is more common as along the eastern shores of Coniston Water. This is one of the unspoilt parts of the Lake District, and in spring, when the shafts of sunlight penetrate the trees and when gaps allow occasional glimpses of Coniston Old Man across the lake, the drive through the woods is unsurpassed.

Glaciated valleys of the Lake District

Of all the glaciated valleys of the Lake District, Ullswater is perhaps the least typical. It also has the reputation of providing fell and lake scenery for the con-noisseurWeekend breaks in the Lake District. One of its most distinctive features, that of the twisting outline of the lake itself, is perhaps best appreciated from a good all round viewpoint like Place Fell . With the possible exception of Windermere, it is perhaps the most landscaped of the lakes. Its relatively flat shore, at least in part, was flavored for big estates like Glencoyne, and Gowbarrow .

Exotic trees were introduced, and as they matured they gave the lakeside an artificial appearance, much appreciated by the romantics and their nineteenth century tourist suc¬cessors.

And yet, in spite of all the landscaping, the Ulster valley still bears the clear imprint of glacial shaping. With icebrushed fell slopes, the shorn rock buttresses like those of Silver Crag and Kailpot Crag, an over deepened lake bed with a depth exceeding 250 ft in places, it is clear that a con¬siderable glacier formerly occupied the valley. Once away from the artificially landscaped shores of Ulster itself and into the remote and little known side valleys like Bore dale and Bannerdale, the effectiveness of glacial fashioning is even more apparent. The slopes of these two valleys are steep and extensive coverings of scree and drift occur towards the base.

Some of this material is still in active movement downslope and there is also evidence of con¬siderable gullying. On the east side of Martindale below Gowk Hill a recent gully has broken right through the stone wall marking the limit of the enclosed land of the valley floor. In nearby Boredale, the abrupt troughed is almost a textbook example of a glaciated valley feature. Ice must have lingered long in such northfacing situations and when it finally melted it left behind its characteristic spread of hummocky drift well seen from Dalehead Farm looking across towards the projecting spur of the Nab. In the main Ullswater valley a small moraine occurs on the eastern side of the lake opposite the delta of Castlehows Point. At its maximum the Ullswater glacier must have filled the valley floor up to a height of about 900 ft. Along the ice margin meltwater channels were cut similar to those of Borrowdale . A fine series occurs in the area between Priests Crag , near Watermillock Church, past Bennet¬head Farm and across the col near the earthwork of Maiden Castle .

Haweswater has taken on such an artificial appearance since the creation of the reservoir that it is difficult to realize that this was once a typical U shaped valley with an over deepened lake (Plate - The building of a dam at its lower end and the raising of the water level by about fifty feet completely transformed the natural setting. As with Thirlmere, it is the steep valley sides plunging without a break into the waters of the reservoir which stick out like a sore thumb to proclaim the artificiality of the whole scene. The valley is literally waistdeep in water, resembling a halffilled bath rather than anything nature could have devised. In its original state, the gentle curve of Mardale, as the valley was called, was not very different from other valleys on the eastern edge of the Lake District .

The feeding headwater valleys coming down from High Street  and Harter Fell  are still largely unaffected and the present marshy head to the reservoir is probably not very different in appearance from that of the original Haweswater though, of course, much higher up the valley. But many other features have gone, apart from the hamlet of Mardale and one or two farms. In its original state, the fine hanging valley of Measand Beck ended in a great torrent spread of gravel and boulders which projected well out into the lake. So large was the torrent fan that it effectively severed the lake almost in two. Now all this is submerged and there is no hint of it at the surface. Straight con¬tours of the water edge have replaced the irregularities of surprise which nature seemingly always seeks to contrive. Only a mile or so away across the fells, the valley of Wet Sleddale  has suffered the same fate, again in order to satisfy the almost insatiable demands of the urban conurbation for water.

Lake no. 3 on my walk to the 16 major lakes in the English Lake District. www.thehiker.co.uk

Lakes and Valleys in the Lake District

It is the concentration of lakes, set within a series of radiating valleys, which more than anything else has stamped an almost unique imprint on the landscape of this corner of EnglandSpa hotel lake district . To the eighteenth century topographic writers, it was simply 'The Lakes'. Lacking any scientific evidence to support or disprove their views, estimates of the depth of the various lakes varied between wide limits. A lake like Derwentwater, with its island, was not considered very deep. Pennant, the eighteenth century traveller, in extolling the virtues of Keswick as a tourist centre, urged the visitor to 'Take boat on the water which makes the place so justly celebrated.

The form is irregular, extending from north to south, above three miles and a half, the breadth one and a half.

The greatest depth is twenty feet in a channel running from end to end, probably formed by the river Der¬went which passes through and gives its name to the lake.' As it later turned out, Pennant's estimate of depth was badly out but it was in keeping with the view that the lake was resistively shallow. Wastwater, on the other hand, was looked upon almost as a bottomless pit. With its dark screes plunging steeply into the south side of the lake and casting an overall gloom, it was clearly very different from Derwentwater or even Windermere.

The early guide books seldom included it because of its inaccessibility even for the most penetrating tourist. Jonathan Otley in the later edition of his Descriptive Guide remarked that 'it has recently been sounded to a depth of forty five fathoms; but we have been told of a par¬ticular shot, when a line of double the length did not reach the bottom; which must at any rate be several fathoms below the level of the sea. It is probably owing to its great depth, in proportion to the extent of surface, that it has never been known to freeze.' Local hearsay suggesting a depth of ninety fathoms or more has proved a gross exaggeration and the originally sounded depth of forty¬ five fathoms is much nearer the truth. Otley's suggestion that the deepest part of the lake might be below sea level has however been confirmed by later soundings.

Our knowledge of the depths and form of the lake basins dates from the end of last century when Hugh Robert Mill and some associates began a systematic survey. Working from a rowing boat and sounding with a lead line, Mill made a number of traverses of each lake. From the depths he obtained, contour lines were inserted and it is these which are shown on the current Ordnance Survey Tourist map. Although James Clarke had published a folio volume of A Survey of the Lakes of Cumberland, Westmorland and Lancashire as early as 1787, and Peter Crosthwaite, self styled 'Admiral of the Keswick Regattas and Hydro¬grapher to the Nobility and Gentry', made a series of rough maps of some of the lakes between 1792 and 1810, Mill's detailed surveys from 1893 onwards gave the first true picture of the lake basins. He was at pains to point out that their form varied considerably. Derwentwater, for example, had a very uneven bed of glacial debris. A central ridge which came to the surface in Derwent Isle and St Herbert's Island might be a partially submerged esker for it is composed of flat stones.