Glenderaterra Beck is a watercourse in the

county A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposes Chambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in North West England, bordering Scotland. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local government, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. C ...

, England. The length of the Glenderaterra, and its major tributary Whit Beck is , which have a total catchment area of . The beck runs from its source on Burnt Horse through the

valley A valley is an elongated low area often running between hills or mountains, which will typically contain a river or stream running from one end to the other. Most valleys are formed by erosion of the land surface by rivers or streams ove ...

between Lonscale Fell and

Blencathra Blencathra, also known as Saddleback, is one of the most northerly hills in the English Lake District. It has six separate fell tops, of which the highest is the Hallsfell Top at 2,848 feet (868 metres). Name For many years, Ordnance Sur ...

to its confluence with the River Greta at Brundholme near

Threlkeld Threlkeld is a village and civil parish in the north of the Lake District in Cumbria, England, to the east of Keswick. It lies at the southern foot of Blencathra, one of the more prominent fells in the northern Lake District, and to the nort ...

. Although the top of the stream from Burnt Horse is widely cited as the source of the Glenderaterra, the Royal Geographical Society and other authorities state that the source of a river is the furthest point from its mouth or confluence with the river it meets downstream, ''regardless of names attached to the contributing flows.'' So, the source must be Roughten Gill which starts on Blencathra, under Halls Fell top and turns the corner at a delightful and well-hidden sheepfold. It is longer than the stream in Sinen Gill which in turn is longer than the Burnt Horse contributor. On its southerly course, Glenderaterra Beck is joined by Sinen Gill and Roughten Gill, draining Blease Fell on Blencathra, and, lower down, Whit Beck, emanating from Jenkin Hill on Skiddaw. This river is used by Geography students for A Level and GCSE field studies.

References

Rivers of Cumbria 2Glenderaterra {{England-river-stub