Tour of Derwentwater and Borrowdale
Derwentwater and Borrowdale have a fascinating history. Below
Stuart Woodbridge, partner in Do Keswick and ex-boatman, gives
a brief guided tour of the lake and its history:
There are four large islands on the lake, only one has any buildings
on it, and that's Derwent Island. The largest island on the lake
is Saint Herbert's Isle, right in the middle of the lake.
The other two islands are Rampsholme island and Lords island.
Lords island got it's name, because that's where the Earl of Derwentwater
used to live. There was a fine house on the island, with a drawbridge
across to the mainland. The house fell into a state of disrepair
when the Earls moved away, in fact the last Earl James wasn't
even born here, he was born in London. He only managed to visit
this area once, and he didn't live an awful lot longer than that!.
Having raised an army he sided with the Jacobites in the 1614
, he was defeated at Preston and beheaded in 1615.
 Anyway
the delapedated house was pulled down, the stone was transported
into Keswick, and used to make a meeting hall. The building is
still standing today right in the middle of the market square,
and is known as the Moot Hall, now the home of the Tourist
Information Centre.
Very little historically has happened on Rampsholme island.
The locals call it 'garlic island', as wild garlic grows on it,
and during the course of the year you can even smell it as you
go past on the boat trips. The proper name for Wild garlic is
ramsens, and in the States it's ramps, so it may well be that
the island really is named after the garlic that grows on it.
Derwentwater is the widest lake in England. It's one and a half
miles wide and just over three miles long and though the lake
is wide it is quite shallow. The lake goes down for about 70 to
80 feet (about 23 metres). Though it sounds quite a lot, compare
it to Windemere which goes down to 200 feet, or Wastwater which
goes down to 400 feet. The average depth is around 15 to 20 feet
and because it's so shallow the lake can freeze over. We've had
a little ice in the last two winters yet the record is supposed
to be in the winter of 1969. We understand the Keswick launch
company told a boatman to drill the ice from where the boats depart,
and the ice was eighteen inches thick.
Derwentwater is on one of the longest rivers in England, the
river Derwent, which starts near Scafell pike, the highest mountain
ion England at just over 3200 feet high. It flows past the small
Borrowdale village of Seathwaite, which is the wettest village
in England. They get just over a 140 inches of rain a year up
there, whilst in Keswick they get about 50 inches!
 The
river Derwent passes through Derwentwater and then out of the
Lake near Portinscale village. It then passes into Bassenthwaite
lake, onto Cockermouth, Workington and then to the sea. A distance
of just under 30 miles.
Roughly half way down Derwentwater is an impressive building
called Barrow House. It was built in the 1790's by Joseph Pocklington,
a rather eccentric gentleman. At about the time he was having
this house built was when people started visiting the Lake District
for holidays and tours. He wanted to encourage this, but he also
wanted to preserve the olde worlde image that people had of the
place. So whilst he had this house built he also had a small hermitage
built further up the road, and he tried to employ a local to be
a professional hermit for the sake of the passing tourists. On
the condition that he didn't cut his hair, his fingernails or
speak to anybody, the contract was for several years, and needles
to say no one wanted the job.
Barrow House is a beautiful building, having large grounds and
even it's own waterfall. That's not natural though. Pocklington
just thought it would like nice with a waterfall, and sent men
up with picks and shovels and various implements of destruction
to make him one. The property is now a YHA hostel and anyone can
stay there.
To the South of Derwentwater is a large building with the turrets.
The building is the Hilton Lodore hotel, and the waterfalls are
Lodore falls. Particularly impressive after a heavy spate of rain
the water drops a hundred feet onto the rocks below.
|
|
