Glenridding

(See also Ullswater)

Sitting on the southwestern shore of Ullswater, Glenridding luxuriates in its scenic views. Its name is purported to mean 'glen overgrown with bracken'.

A group of Dutchmen discovered lead ore here in the 1650's, and mining began about 50 years later. However, it was the mid-1700's before full production swung into action, building to its height by 1825. Silver was a by-product of the lead. Tarns were dammed to provide power for the waterwheels. Two floods occurred in the village as a result of dams breaking. In 1962 the Greenside Lead Mines Company closed, and the mining areas were landscaped. A walk leads up Glenridding beck to the mine buildings, one of which is now a youth hostel.

There are a number of shops, eating spots, and a pub to serve the many tourists who visit the area, most to take a cruise of Ullswater on one of the historic steamers that dock at the village pier.

Glenridding, embraced on three sides by the fells, is a perfect spot for walkers to begin their ascents of Fairfield, Place Fell, and Helvellyn. A walk from Glenridding to Howtown takes in the scene that Wordsworth wrote about in his famous Ode to the Daffodils in 1802:

". . . A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze. . ."

Location Map of Glenridding
Glenridding is located on the A592 southwest of Penrith.

Ullswater Steamers website: www.ullswater-steamers.co.uk/index.htm

Helvellyn Youth Hostel
Glenridding Penrith Cumbria
Penrith, Cumbria
CA11 0PG
Tel: 01768 482269

Photos courtesy of Graeme Dougal

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