©Andrew Locking

Wasdale

Wasdale, in the far western , the early 1300s, there were four recorded Wasdale is one of the most significant is a valley of extremes. ’s highest vaccaries, or commercial cattle farms, valleys in the National Trust’s Lake District mountain, Pike, looks down on in Wasdale and by 1547, there were portfolio and it now owns and protects England’s deepest lake, . 19 farms listed in rent records. Today, a number of farms and some 6,677 But it’s also a place of contrasts. The Wasdale is one the Lake District’s key hectares of land. The Fell and Rock high, jagged fells that belong to the valleys for rearing the hardy Herdwick Climbing Club also donated 3,000 acres Borrowdale Volcanic Group abruptly breed of sheep. The annual Wasdale of land to the Trust, including the iconic give way, as the valley runs south Show and Shepherds’ Meet is one of the fell of as a memorial to the west, to a gentle, wooded, pastoral main events of the Herdwick farmers’ fallen of World War I. In the late 1970s, landscape including large country year. Other than charcoal production in The National Trust, The Friends of the houses, gardens and parkland. The the local woods and a small amount of Lake District, the Youth Hostel Association scene opens out further as the valley mining on Irton Fell, farming was, and still and other local groups and individuals runs into the estuary where the rivers is, the main economic activity here. came to together and managed to Irt and Mite meet the sea. successfully overturn a proposal by Cultural tourism to Wasdale was limited British Nuclear Fuels to increase the There’s a brooding drama to Wasdale, in the 18th and 19th centuries because abstraction of water from Wast Water. with the imposing bulk of Great Gable, of its far westerly location, but the more and at its head and adventurous were starting to come here Despite its more remote position, the spectacular sight of The Screes for the early sport of rock climbing. This Wasdale is perhaps one of the best plunging into the glacial U-shaped began to develop in the late 19th and known and well-loved valleys in the valley lake. early 20th centuries, encouraged by Lake District thanks to its spectacular key figures such as Walter Parry Haskett landscape of lake, screes and high The earliest surviving traces of human Smith and the Abraham brothers of mountains, which form the basis of the activity in Wasdale date back to Keswick. Haskett Smith’s ascent of the Lake District National Park’s logo. Mesolithic times. Neolithic stone axe famous Napes Needle on Great Gable workings have been found high up on in 1886 was a landmark in the popularity and evidence of Bronze Age of rock climbing in the Lake District. settlement exists on the valley bottom. The Inn at the head of Early medieval and Norse finds have the valley became a thriving centre for been made elsewhere in the valley. By walkers and climbers, and still is today.

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