Ennerdale Water is the most westerly lake in the

Lake District National Park The Lake District National Park is a national park in North West England that includes all of the central Lake District, though the town of Kendal, some coastal areas, and the Lakeland Peninsulas are outside the park boundary. The area was desi ...

in Cumbria, England. It is a

glacial lake A glacial lake is a body of water with origins from glacier activity. They are formed when a glacier erodes the land and then melts, filling the depression created by the glacier. Formation Near the end of the last glacial period, roughly 10,0 ...

, with a maximum depth of 150 feet (45 metres), and is ½ mile to a mile (700 to 1,500 metres) wide and 2½ miles (3.9 kilometres) long. The lake lies in the eponymous valley of Ennerdale, surrounded by some of the highest and best-known fells in Cumbria including: Great Gable (899 m),

Green Gable Green Gable is a fell in the English Lake District often traversed by walkers en route to its more famous neighbour Great Gable. It can be ascended from Honister Pass, Seathwaite in Borrowdale, or Ennerdale. There are good views of Gable Crag, ...

, Brandreth, High Crag, Steeple and Pillar. To the west of the lake lies the hamlet of

Ennerdale Bridge Ennerdale Bridge is a hamlet in the county of Cumbria, England. It is in the civil parish of Ennerdale and Kinniside. It had a total population taken at the 2011 census of 220. Description Ennerdale Bridge lies at the confluence of Croasdal ...

, consisting of two pubs and a few houses. It is close to the port of Whitehaven.

Etymology

" 'Anund's valley'. The name Ennerdale seems originally to have derived from 'Anundar',

genitive In grammar, the genitive case (abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive can al ...

sing.

lar Lar or LAR may refer to: Places ;India * Lar, Uttar Pradesh, a town in Deoria District * Lar (Jammu and Kashmir), a town * Lata (region), also known as Lar, former region of southern Gujarat ;Iran * Lar, Iran, a city in Fars Province * Lar, Ea ...

of the ON personal name 'Anundr'/'Qnundr', and ON 'dalr' 'valley', but there has been cross-influence between this p.n. and 'Ehen', the name of the river which flows through the valley." (ON is Old Norse.) The lake has been referred to in guidebooks and maps variously as "Brodewater" (1576), "Brodwater" (1695), "Broad Water" (1760), "Ennerdale Water" (1784) and "Ennerdale Lake" in Otley's Guide (1823). It is now the Ordnance Survey convention to name it "Ennerdale Water".

Geography

Ennerdale Water is fed by the

River Liza The River Liza flows through Ennerdale, a glacial valley in Cumbria, England. The river is allowed to flow freely as part of a rewilding project. The Liza flows from its source below Windy Gap on Great Gable through a steep-sided valley to Enne ...

and other streams, and in turn feeds the

River Ehen The River Ehen is a river in Cumbria, England. The river's source is at the west end of Ennerdale Water: it runs west through Ennerdale Bridge where it is joined by Croasdale Beck (flowing from Banna Fell). Ennerdale Water itself is fed by the ...

, which runs to the Irish Sea.

Water abstraction

Although the lake is natural, in 1902 a shallow weir was added to what is probably a glacial moraine to maintain the level. The lake is owned by United Utilities, which abstracts water to serve customers in the Whitehaven area. In 2013, United Utilities was informed by the

Environment Agency The Environment Agency (EA) is a non-departmental public body, established in 1996 and sponsored by the United Kingdom government's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with responsibilities relating to the protection and enha ...

that the abstraction licence was being revoked to protect the environment of Ennerdale and the River Ehen. This meant that United Utilities had to find an alternative water source for customers in West Cumbria. After public consultation, a preferred option to provide water to West Cumbria via a new pipeline from Thirlmere was selected. After a public inquiry in 2014, the independent Planning Inspectors report ruled that the Thirlmere transfer was the right solution and that abstraction from Ennerdale Water would cease by 2022. The construction of the pipeline commenced in 2017. At the same time, United Utilities started to blend water from Ennerdale Water with groundwater from boreholes near Egremont.

Environmental protection measures

Ennerdale has been designated a biological

Site of Special Scientific Interest A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle of ...

(SSSI). Species of interest include the Arctic char. The site contains a variety of habitats apart from the open water of the lake itself.

Tourism

Despite being sited on Wainwright's coast-to-coast walk, the valley is not much visited by tourists. Due to the remote location, the lack of a public road up the valley, and its management by the Forestry Commission, the National Trust and United Utilities, Ennerdale Water has not been as spoiled as other lakes in the National Park by construction, activity on the lake or the effects of tourism.

Notable facts

Though the Lake District is a popular UK location for film shoots, Ennerdale has been left relatively in the shadow, with only a few brief exceptions. The closing sequences of the film ''

28 Days Later ''28 Days Later'' is a 2002 British post-apocalyptic horror film directed by Danny Boyle and written by Alex Garland. It stars Cillian Murphy as a bicycle courier who awakens from a coma to discover the accidental release of a highly contagi ...

'' (2002), directed by Danny Boyle, were filmed around the Ennerdale area, and include a sweeping, panoramic view of the lake. In 1810 a large carnivore killed hundreds of sheep in and around Ennerdale before it was hunted down and killed. The locals dubbed it the Girt (''dialect'': "great") Dog of Ennerdale, though it was said to have had the traits of both a dog and a large cat. Once a year, during the last week in August, the Ennerdale Show brings local people together with agricultural displays, competitions, arts and crafts. Former US President Bill Clinton first proposed to his wife Hillary on the banks of Ennerdale Water in 1973.

References

External links

Wild Ennerdale website
{{authority control Cumberland Reservoirs in Cumbria Lakes of the Lake District Borough of Copeland Drinking water reservoirs in England Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Cumbria LEnnerdale