Brothers Water is a small lake in the
Hartsop
Hartsop is a small village in the English Lake District. It lies in the Patterdale valley, near Brothers Water, Hayeswater and Kirkstone Pass.
It consists of 17th-century grey stone cottages, like so many of its neighbours. Hartsop retains ...
valley, in the eastern region of the
Lake District
The Lake District, also known as the Lakes or Lakeland, is a mountainous region in North West England. A popular holiday destination, it is famous for its lakes, forests, and mountains (or ''fells''), and its associations with William Wordswor ...
in England.
Once called Broad Water, it lies at the northern end of
Kirkstone Pass
Kirkstone Pass is a mountain pass in the English Lake District, in the county of Cumbria. It is at an altitude of .
It is the District's highest pass traversed by road, the A592 road between Ambleside in Rothay Valley and Patterdale in Ul ...
, affording views on the descent towards
Patterdale
Patterdale (Saint Patrick's Dale) is a small village and civil parish in the eastern part of the English Lake District in the Eden District of Cumbria, in the traditional county of Westmorland, and the long valley in which they are found, also ...
. The name was changed in the 19th century after two brothers drowned there.
Dorothy Wordsworth
Dorothy Mae Ann Wordsworth (25 December 1771 – 25 January 1855) was an English author, poet, and diarist. She was the sister of the Romantic poet William Wordsworth, and the two were close all their adult lives. Dorothy Wordsworth had no a ...
, having left
William Wordsworth
William Wordsworth (7 April 177023 April 1850) was an English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with their joint publication ''Lyrical Ballads'' (1798).
Wordsworth's ' ...
sitting on Cow Bridge, walked beside the lake on 16 April 1802, commented on:
The lake is not among the most popular in the
national park
A national park is a nature park, natural park in use for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state dec ...
, being shallow and full of reeds. Water lilies bloom in July, providing colour.
To the north-east of Brothers Water is the village of
Hartsop
Hartsop is a small village in the English Lake District. It lies in the Patterdale valley, near Brothers Water, Hayeswater and Kirkstone Pass.
It consists of 17th-century grey stone cottages, like so many of its neighbours. Hartsop retains ...
, which has several 17th-century stone farm buildings and cottages. Some of the buildings still contain spinning-rooms where villagers would have made their own clothing, selling any surplus in the local market towns. The word
Hartsop
Hartsop is a small village in the English Lake District. It lies in the Patterdale valley, near Brothers Water, Hayeswater and Kirkstone Pass.
It consists of 17th-century grey stone cottages, like so many of its neighbours. Hartsop retains ...
means "valley of the deer", which would have lived in the woodlands of the lower areas of the surrounding fells. A walk through woodland skirts the western shore. From its northern end the walk leads to Patterdale. Southward it heads over Kirkstone Pass to
Ambleside
Ambleside is a town and former civil parish, now in the parish of Lakes, Cumbria, Lakes, in Cumbria, in North West England.
Historic counties of England, Historically in Westmorland, it marks the head (and sits on the east side of the northern ...
.
On the western side of Brothers Water is
Hartsop Hall. The 16th-century building passed to
Sir John Lowther in the 17th century and is now owned by the National Trust.
The village of
Hartsop
Hartsop is a small village in the English Lake District. It lies in the Patterdale valley, near Brothers Water, Hayeswater and Kirkstone Pass.
It consists of 17th-century grey stone cottages, like so many of its neighbours. Hartsop retains ...
lies near the northeast corner of the lake. Brothers Water may be classified in either of two ways: as one of the Lake District's smallest lakes or one of its largest tarns.
The lake is home to a
trout
Trout are species of freshwater fish belonging to the genera '' Oncorhynchus'', ''Salmo'' and ''Salvelinus'', all of the subfamily Salmoninae of the family Salmonidae. The word ''trout'' is also used as part of the name of some non-salmoni ...
population and harbours a rare species of fish, the
schelly
The schelly (''Coregonus stigmaticus'') is a living fresh water fish of the salmon family, endemic to four lakes in the Lake District, England. Its taxonomy is disputed with some recognizing it as a distinct species and others as a variant of t ...
.
References
Lakes of the Lake District
Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Cumbria
Westmorland
Patterdale
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