The Lake District's Borrowdale Valley
A Craggy, Wooded Valley Running South from Keswick and Derwentwater
Nov 1, 2008
The Cocker and the Derwent, Crummock Water and Skiddaw are typical examples. But these names have been almost obliterated by the thick Viking overlay that has given us Borrowdale, Troutdale, Langstrath, the fells and the mountain tarns that vastly outnumber the lowland lakes the tourists come to see.
The Scandinavian invaders cut clearings, or ‘thveits’ in the forests, to build their settlements, at Rosthwaite and Stonethwaite. The summer pastures, or ‘saetrs’ became Seatoller, Seathwaite, Lord’s Seat. And their sheep are believed to be ancestors of the hardy herdwicks that now graze the hillsides.
Rosthwaite
Rosthwaite is a Borrowdale bottleneck that slows the motorist’s progress between Keswick and Buttermere. A broad, straight road approaches the village at both ends. Then the houses squeeze and twist it, so that the driver needs to take care.
The scenery around Rosthwaite is magnificent. With the use of a car, any part of the Lake District can be reached within a leisurely two hours. Even within easy walking distance, there is a great deal to see and do.
At the northern end of the village, on top of a slight rise, is Hazel Bank. This is now a hotel, but was chosen by Hugh Walpole as the setting for his series of historical novels, The Herries Chronicles.
Valley Walks
Easy walks along forest tracks and river bank lead to the even more picturesque Grange, with its twin bridges over the Derwent, which at this point flows between crags that are known as the Jaws of Borrowdale. The tributary valley of Stonethwaite Beck leads to Langstrath, which hides small, beautiful waterfalls and still pools of a depth and clarity that are hard to believe.
Glaciation
The broad U-shape and smooth sides of Borrowdale are testimony to the grinding forces of the Ice Age glaciers that carved the Lake District scenery. Not a mile from Rosthwaite is one of the most impressive relics of glaciation, the huge, erratic boulder known as the Bowder Stone. As big as a house, this is precariously perched on an edge so narrow that at one point it is possible for a visitor to shake hands beneath it with a person on the other side.
Hill Walking
For the more energetic, there are walks up the smaller hills of Catbells and Maiden Moor, or up to the hidden hamlet of Watendlath, also featured in Walpole’s novels. The higher peaks of Dale Head and Fleetwith Pike, above Honister Pass can be reached on a short day, while the really adventurous can make ascents of what is arguably England’s finest mountain, Great Gable, and unarguably its highest, Scafell Pike.
Seathwaite
About two miles south of Rosthwaite, the Borrowdale valley comes to an end at Seathwaite, which has the unenviable distinction of being the wettest place in England. At the road’s end is a group of yew trees immortalised in poetry by Wordsworth. Their age is estimated at around 2000 years, and they comprise the only yew tree site to be marked on an Ordnance Survey map.
On the hills above Seathwaite are the remains of the plumbago mines that once supplied all the graphite in the world. This form of carbon was discovered around 1500AD, and rapidly became an extremely valuable commodity, and the basis of Keswick’s pencil manufacturing industry. During the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, graphite was essential for making the moulds in which were cast the cannon balls that defeated the Spanish Armada.
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