Buttermere from Edge Hindscarth ©Andrew Locking

Buttermere

Nestling serenely in the north-west in Buttermere and it is an important account of the true story of Mary corner of the Lake District, Buttermere’s grazing place for the hardy Herdwick Robinson in his popular novel ‘The classic U-shaped glacial valley contains breed. Other industries here included Maid of Buttermere’. Mary was the not one but three lakes – Buttermere, some limited mining, thanks to the daughter of the landlord of the Fish Inn, Crummock Water and Loweswater. discovery of haematite in the west side a hostelry that still welcomes visitors in Buttermere runs out from the central of the valley and some iron production the valley today. fells, through the meandering Derwent in medieval times. The remains of 14 iron Valley on towards the mouth of the smelting furnace sites, or bloomeries, The story of conservation around lovely Solway Firth, creating a scene can be found around Crummock Water, Buttermere is a fascinating one. In that Alfred Wainwright described in his Loweswater and east of Buttermere. But 1814, with the encouragement and ‘Pictorial Guides to the Lakeland Fells’ it is the results of the mining of Lakeland involvement of Wordsworth, John as a place where “loneliness, solitude slate that dominate the landscape at Marshall, the Leeds industrialist, bought and silence prevail that make the the head of the valley at Honister Hause. extensive landholdings around the lakes scene unforgettable”. of Buttermere, Crummock Water and In their 1799 walking tour, both Loweswater, with the aim of maintaining Neolithic or Bronze Age settlement in the Wordsworth and Coleridge visited the beauty of the area. Large parts valley can be traced through the rock art Buttermere. In his ‘Notebook’, Coleridge of the valley have subsequently been at Mill Beck, Buttermere and Crummock wrote lyrically of a striking yew tree. This purchased by the National Trust and the Water. There are also a number of was the same tree later celebrated by whole of the valley head of Buttermere prehistoric summit cairns, including Wordsworth in his poem ‘Yew Trees’. is covered by a restrictive covenant those at Carling Knott and Grasmoor, Although damaged and reduced by a agreed with G. M. Trevelyan in 1937. and it is thought that an Iron Age hillfort storm, the yew tree still stands today Canon Rawnsley also managed to stood at Loweswater. Early medieval on the bank of the Whit Beck, behind lead a successful protest to prevent the and Norse settlement is reflected in the village hall. JMW Turner’s visit to the building of a railway from Keswick to words such as ‘thwaite’ (clearing), ‘scale’ valley was transformative for him as an Buttermere to serve the Honister slate (summer farm) and ‘kirk’ (church) in artist and his spectacular ‘Buttermere quarry. Together, these conservation local place names. Lake, with Part of Cromackwater, activities have led to the preservation of Cumberland, a Shower’ was shown in a strikingly beautiful and pastoral valley. Sheep farming, as it has been for an exhibition at the Royal Academy. centuries, is the principal occupation Broadcaster Melvyn Bragg wrote an

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