Watendlath Cumbria the Lake District.

Watendlath hamlet south of Keswick Cumbria

Watendlath

(See also Watendlath Tarn)

The isolated hamlet of Watendlath, granted to Fountains Abbey in 1195, is now the property of the National Trust. At the end of a narrow, dead-end road, set in the fold of the mountains, it is surrounded by the Lake Districts stunning countryside.

Sitting beside Watendlath tarn, Watendlath consists of only a few whitewashed houses and stone barns. Anglers come here to fish for trout in the tarn, featured in Edmund Cassons poem The Wise Kings of Borrowdale:

Watendlath's quiet nook.
A farm is there, and a slated barn,
And a waterfall, and a pebbly tarn;
And all the way to High Lodore
The banks of the beck are painted o'er
With red herb-willow and red loose-strife.

Watendlath and its tarn have another connection with literature having served as the setting in Judith Paris, one of Hugh Walpoles Herries Chronicles.

This is walking country. The hamlet is a popular starting and ending point for hiking the adjoining fells and Borrowdale. A path from the west side of Thirlmere near the south end of the reservoir passes through plantations of birch and pine before descending to Watendlath. Another path goes from the west side of Thirlmere near the north end of reservoir, crosses High Tove, and then joins the other path before descending to Watendlath. A footpath from Rosthwaite leads over the fell via Ashness bridge to Watendlath.

Location Map of Watendlath

Watendlath is four miles south of Keswick at the end of a minor road off the B5289 that skirts Derwent Water.

Photos courtesy of Andy Wallace

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