Round the lake: 1.4 miles, 1 hour (including detour to cross swollen beck)
Time taken - whole walk 3 hours (could be much less if walked briskly!)
Height: 800ft from car park to lake
Another Lake I'd not heard of before drawing up my list, Hayeswater is situated in the eastern bit of the Lake District between Patterdale and Kirkstone Pass, on the fell above Hartsop. We followed the A592 from Ullswater and turned left just before reaching Brothers Water. Following a very narrow track through Hartsop we soon arrived at the end of the road in an unpaved car park which offered plenty of parking for the cost of a voluntary donation to Patterdale School.
A bridleway leads from the car park and is signposted to Hayeswater so navigation is not a problem! The bridleway leads past some sheep pens with a shed and, today at least, a flock of newly shorn sheep all of whom had smeared their new red marks to become a uniform pink.
The weather wasn't promising as we walked past the pink sheep and along the roughly tarred road which led towards the joining of two valleys; a drab and drizzly day left us thinking maybe it wasn't the best decision we'd made to hike out to this remote body of water. Nevertheless, we continued, head in hood, wishing we'd brought waterproof trousers.
It soon became apparent that our target was at the head of the valley on our left and that there would be a steep climb before it was reached. Past an old farm building with considerable greenery growing through it's slate roof, the road led us through a gate and up a steepish climb. A furious stream rushed past on our left and it was no surprise to learn, a little later, that construction was underway to instal a hydro electric plant!
As the path climbs the view of Hayeswater Gill became more dramatic, and a series of waterfalls, at least on this miserable wet Sunday afternoon, added a bit of much needed interest.
We climbed on, up the hill with fell to our right, and a steep drop down to the beck on our left. We could now see that a path which had split from ours before the farm building, where we'd crossed the beck by way of a heavy duty steel bridge, now went in the same direction as ours but on the opposite side of the beck. It would have been a perfectly good alternative.
After some little while, the path seemed to reach the crest of a hill and passing over it we got our first view of the mighty Hayeswater. Not too impressive really, it lay in bleakness surrounded as it was by green fell on three sides and a grey sky above. Drizzle eased a little though and we were inspired to commence a clockwise circumnavigation!
There isn't much of a path, just a narrow sheep trod which, from time to time, resembles a small stream. At this point though something odd struck us; although water was rushing into the beck which drains the lake, the water level had, at some time not long ago, been a good six or eight feet higher than it is today. A margin of rocky shoreline, at times quite steep, surrounds almost all of the lake. A spot of research when we got home taught us that, until about a year ago, a dam had existed at the end of the lake and that until about 2005 it had been a store of drinking water for Penrith. No sign of the dam now though, it had been expertly removed leaving scarcely a trace - I wonder how many years will pass before the tell tale rocky shoreline is similarly vanished?
Apart from the slightly artificial look of the exiting beck, there's no sign that this was, just a year or so ago, a man made reservoir and the site of a dam
We continued our walk along the left hand side of the lake and eventually it became possible to walk along the shore on fine gravel. As we approached the top of the lake however the rocky beach gave way to mud flats and again we were obliged to get up onto the grass and pick our way through a mixture of sieves, rough grass and moss; plenty of scope for getting wet feet, must be August.
Two cumbrian feet, 3 August 2014, Devoke Water
Two cumbrian feet, 9 August 2015, Hayeswater
Rounding the head of Hayeswater was a tricky business if we were to avoid getting really wet feet. The ground was uneven and wet and the drizzle had transformed into proper, soaking rain - as so often at this stage of a Lake District walk (maximum distance from shelter) we wished we'd brought our waterproof trousers.
With no alternative we pressed on, eventually reaching a beck which flowed into the lake. Now flowing quite furiously, this beck was conspicuous in its lack of bridges or other obvious crossing places. We walked upstream for some way, hoping it would narrow to a point where we could jump across or widen to a point where it was shallow enough to walk across, perhaps with the help of a stepping stone or two.
In search of a crossing point
By the time I found a likely crossing point the lake had drifted into the background and my walking companion wasn't looking too happy as I jumped onto a gravel patch in the middle of the beck and, from there, onto the opposite bank. Looking back in expectation however,it became clear that I was on my own and that my fellow intrepid explorer didn't have the take off capability to join me. There then followed further walking up and down both banks until we finally found a spot that was crossable - this episode added at least twenty minutes to the walk, but we were now heading in the right direction, our feet were still relatively dry and the rain had stopped - all's well that ends well!
By the time we reached the bottom of the lake again, the weather had improved a little
The walk back to the car was uneventful - we missed the opportunity to cross the gill and walk back down the other side which might have been nice, but arrived at the car park quite satisfied with our afternoon. Another lake crossed off the list and one which neither us had visited before.
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