Watendlath Tarn

Car to lake: 2.75 miles - from the car park at Ashness Bridge

Round the lake: 0.5 miles

Time taken: 2.5 hours 

As it is a relatively small body of water, the walk to Watendlath Tarn was always going to be more important than the walk around it. You can drive right up to it, but it makes more sense to park two, or even three miles away, and walk.

Driving south out of Keswick on the Borrowdale road, you soon come to a left turn which quickly brings you to what is likely the most photographed single structure in the Lake District; Ashness Bridge.

Calendars, tea towels, place mats - this view has adorned them all since time immemorial.
Ashness Bridge, Derwentwater and Skiddaw.

Just a few yards further, among the trees on the right, is a National Trust car park where we  left the car and began the walk along the single track road. The road soon begins to climb and, after a brief period with open fields on one side, it re-enters an area with trees on both sides of the road and, on the right, what appears to be a cliff edge just a few yards into the wood. Shortly, another car park indicates a point of interest and a short walk through the trees brings you to another well photographed point; Surprise View.

Now I don't know about you, but, out for a walk near Keswick, high on a hill with an obvious open view about to appear, I would never have been surprised to find myself looking down on Derwentwater and across to  Bassenthwaite Lake and Skiddaw. Had I found myself looking down on the Isle of Wight, or downtown Los Angeles and its freeway system, then I'd have been surprised! But lakes and mountains? in Cumbria? No.

That is to take nothing away from the splendid nature of the view; it is quite magnificent and well worth walking over to see. Some Malaysian visitors we spoke to were most impressed and very proud to have discovered, we assured  them, one of the best views around!

The entirely predictable, "Surprise View"

Continuing the walk, we shortly turned off the road to follow a signposted path to Watendlath which led us through the trees and along the opposite side of the river. In bright, late autumn sunlight it was a beautiful walk along a well defined path and a better alternative than following the road which ran parallel on our left.

A better option than the road, even when traffic is light.

The path continued in this vein for almost two miles until we arrived at a small hump backed bridge over the beck which flowed out of Watendlath Tarn. Wandering round the small hamlet we discovered a house that claimed to belong to Judith Paris and a tea shop that was closed. Judith Paris, I learned, is a character from the Herries chronicles; a well known piece of literature set in these parts.

The tarn itself is pretty enough and today was exceptionally calm, the white-washed farm house reflecting perfectly in the still water. There being neither tea nor entertainment of any other sort, we set off back over the little bridge in an anti clockwise direction around the tarn. Then we hit upon a problem. On only my third lake in this project it became clear that walking right round Watendlath Tarn wasn't possible without breaking my own rule of not entering farmland where walkers were clearly not expected to be.

Not a ripple

The track around the right hand side of the tarn was a broad cart track but, as it faded into a footpath, it led away from the water and up onto the fell leading over to Rosthwaite at the head of Borrowdale. Only by climbing over a wall or two, walking across walled fields and risking an encounter with a possibly unhappy farmer were we going to circumnavigate this tarn.

Then we saw a sign which altered our plans for the remainder of the walk; the path, it seemed, led to "Dock Tarn". We had reached Watendlath Tarn, we could see all round it and we'd walked half way round it, there was little to be gained by going where we shouldn't just to complete the job. Instead, we would carry on and visit Dock Tarn.

A good track round one side of the tarn, but none round the other

By the time we'd done Dock Tarn (see next post) and returned to Watendlath, it was late afternoon and we chose to walk back to Ashness along the road rather than the footpath. This was fine, as there was little traffic and we reached our car in almost exactly an hour.

Evening comes early at the end of November and by 3pm light is already fading