Hayeswater is a small

lake A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much large ...

within the Lake District of

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 lake is situated about a mile (1.6 km) SE of the hamlet of Hartsop in the

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 ...

Valley. It nestles between

The Knott The Knott is a fell in the English Lake District, standing above Hayeswater in the Far Eastern Fells. It is an outlier of Rampsgill Head, being the high point of the ridge from there to Rest Dodd. Topography The ridge from Rampsgill Head tr ...

to its east and Gray Crag to the west and it is at an altitude of almost 1,400 feet (425 m). The lake is natural but was dammed in 1908 to provide a

reservoir A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation. Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including contro ...

serving the Cumbrian town of Penrith. It is fed from the south by Hayeswater Gill, which rises close to the route of the Roman

High Street High Street is a common street name for the primary business street of a city, town, or village, especially in the United Kingdom and Commonwealth. It implies that it is the focal point for business, especially shopping. It is also a metonym fo ...

and continues to Cow Bridge where it joins the outlet stream from Brothers Water. It had not been used as a reservoir since 2005 and United Utilities removed the dam and restored it to a mountain tarn in the summer of 2014. A new footbridge over Hayeswater Beck was also constructed 250 yards downstream from the tarn outlet channel.

References

Reservoirs in Cumbria Lakes of the Lake District Westmorland Patterdale {{Cumbria-geo-stub