River Keekle

The River Keekle flows through Cumbria, rising at Keekle Head Farm on High Park between Gilgarran and Asby. It travels south through a former open-cast mine between Frizington and Whitehaven, past the hamlet of Keekle, and joins the River Ehen at Cleator. Salmon are sometimes seen in its waters. The river’s valley once held the Oatlands Pit, sunk in 1880 by The Moresby Coal Company, which also built Pica Village’s pit terraces. By the 1980s the site had become an open-cast mine and later a dumping ground for mine waste. Plans to store low-level nuclear waste there were rejected in 2012 after strong local opposition. A 2.5 km stretch of the river was lined with plastic in the 1990s to block mine water contamination. By 2020 the West Cumbria Rivers Trust removed 150 tonnes of plastic, restoring the riverbed with gravel and cobbles. Walkmill Community Woodland car park now has a bench and picnic table made from the recycled plastic, and the river is returning to a natural state.