Wast Water

Wast Water lies in the Wasdale valley, in the western Lake District National Park. It is England’s deepest lake, stretching five kilometres long and half a kilometre wide. The lake fills a valley carved by glaciers, its surface sixty metres above sea level and its bottom fifteen metres below. Owned by the National Trust, the water is unusually clear because it holds few nutrients. The name comes from Old Norse and once meant ‘valley of the lake’. The lake is ringed by some of England’s highest peaks, including Scafell Pike and Great Gable. On the eastern shore rise the Wastwater Screes, cliffs of volcanic rock that plunge two thousand feet to the water’s edge. A path follows the shoreline past boulders and scree falls, while the cliffs of Buckbarrow and the shape of Yewbarrow face the lake on the west. The lake feeds the River Irt, which reaches the Irish Sea near Ravenglass. Both the lake and the screes are protected as Sites of Special Scientific Interest. At the head of the valley stands Wasdale Head, where Mr Chipping meets his future wife in the novel Goodbye, Mr Chips. The lake is also known for the preserved body of Margaret Hogg, found eight years after her murder in 1976. Beneath the surface lies a former gnome garden, placed for divers but later removed after fatalities. In 2007 the lake won a national poll for Britain’s Favourite View.