River Ehen

The River Ehen rises at the western end of Ennerdale Water in Cumbria’s Lake District. It flows west through Ennerdale Bridge, where Croasdale Beck joins from Banna Fell, then past Cleator Moor and Cleator. After receiving the River Keekle it turns south, skirts Egremont and runs beside the Irish Sea before joining it at Sellafield alongside the River Calder. The river holds England’s largest population of freshwater pearl mussels and serves as a salmon breeding ground. Poaching has been reported along much of its length. In 2005 the Ehen was named a Special Area of Conservation and its estuary became part of the Cumbria Coast Marine Conservation Zone in 2013. The rare Ennerdale black pearl forms inside the mussels here, making it the only English river included in the EU-funded “Pearls in Peril” project. The mussels depend on salmonids such as salmon and trout for part of their life cycle. A weir on Ennerdale Water once supplied water to Sellafield, but this stopped in the 1990s. The valley remains an important source of drinking water for West Cumbria, though a new pipeline from Thirlmere will replace it by 2025. Anglers can fish along sections managed by the Wath Brow and Ennerdale Angling Association.