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 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 ...

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. Cumb ...

, England. The lake is situated about a mile (1.6 km) SE of the hamlet 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 ...

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 Gray Crag is a fell in the Lake District in Cumbria, England. Topography The fell reaches a height of 699 metres (2,293 feet) at the northern end of its summit ridge and this is the accepted highest point which gives the best views, ...

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 Brothers Water is a small lake in the Hartsop valley, in the eastern region of the Lake District in England. Once called Broad Water, it lies at the northern end of Kirkstone Pass, affording views on the descent towards Patterdale. The name was c ...

. 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