Lodore Falls is a waterfall in

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 England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, close to

Derwentwater Derwentwater, or Derwent Water, is one of the principal bodies of water in the Lake District National Park in north west England. It lies wholly within the Borough of Allerdale, in the county of Cumbria. The lake occupies part of Borrowda ...

and downstream from Watendlath. The falls are located on the beck that flows from Watendlath Tarn, and tumble more than over a steep cascade into the

Borrowdale Borrowdale is a valley and civil parish in the English Lake District in the Borough of Allerdale in Cumbria, England. It lies within the historic county boundaries of Cumberland. It is sometimes referred to as ''Cumberland Borrowdale'' t ...

Valley. Although it is spectacular in the rainy season, it can dry to a trickle in the summer.

History

Lodore Falls Hotel, Derwentwater - geograph

There are theories that the falls are the ''Rhaeadr Derwennydd'' (Derwennydd Falls) mentioned in the

Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peop ...

lullaby "

Dinogad's Smock "Dinogad's Smock" or "Dinogad's Cloak" ( owl, Peis Dinogat; cy, Pais Dinogad) is an Old Welsh lullaby recounting the hunting prowess of the dead father of an infant named Dinogad, who is wrapped in a smock made of Pine Marten, marten skins. Th ...

", preserved as an interpolation in the epic poem ''

Y Gododdin ''Y Gododdin'' () is a medieval Welsh poem consisting of a series of elegies to the men of the Brittonic kingdom of Gododdin and its allies who, according to the conventional interpretation, died fighting the Angles of Deira and Bernicia at a p ...

'', written between the 7th and 11th centuries. One of the other earliest recorded visits to the "Lodoar Falls" was by

William Sawrey Gilpin William Sawrey Gilpin (4 October 1762 – 4 April 1843) was an English artist and drawing master, and in later life a landscape designer. Biography Gilpin was born at Scaleby Castle, Cumbria on 4 October 1762, the son of the animal painter Saw ...

in 1772, and he describes them as follows: "''The stream falls through a chasm between two towering perpendicular rocks. The intermediate part, broken into large fragments, forms the rough bed of the cascade. Some of these fragments stretching out in shelves, hold a depth of soil sufficient for large trees. Among these broken rocks the stream finds its way through a fall of at least a hundred feet; and in heavy rains, the water is every way suited to the grandeur of the scene.''" Gilpin referred to the rivulet as the "Lodoar River". By the time of Joseph Budworth's tour of the local area in 1792, a public house had been built in front of the falls. A famous onomatopoeic poem, "

Cataract of Lodore "The Cataract of Lodore" is a poem written in 1820 by the English poet Robert Southey which describes the Lodore Falls on the Watendlath. Publication history One of Southey's most popular poems, "The Cataract of Lodore" made an early appeara ...

", written by

Robert Southey Robert Southey ( or ; 12 August 1774 – 21 March 1843) was an English poet of the Romantic school, and Poet Laureate from 1813 until his death. Like the other Lake Poets, William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Southey began as a ra ...

in 1820, was inspired by the falls, and he seems to have fixed the spelling of the name. The public house was enlarged to become the Lodore Hotel in 1870. The hotel was bought by Robert England and his Swiss wife, Merthie Muggler, becoming the Swiss Lodore Hotel in 1947. The hotel was acquired by

Stakis Hotels Stakis Hotels was a hotel company in the United Kingdom led by Sir Reo Stakis, headquartered in Glasgow. History The company was founded by Reo Stakis in the 1930s. It was sold to Hilton Hotels & Resorts, Hilton Group in 2000 for £1.2 billion. F ...

in 1987, by

Hilton Hotels Hilton Hotels & Resorts (formerly known as Hilton Hotels) is a global brand of full-service hotels and resorts and the flagship brand of American multinational hospitality company Hilton. The original company was founded by Conrad Hilton. As ...

(on their acquisition of Stakis Hotels) in 1999 and by the Graves family, who renamed it the Lodore Falls Hotel, in 2004. The falls are on private land which can be directly accessed by hotel patrons or accessed by the general public via a roadside path. The oak woodlands are a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).

References

Sources

* Gilpin, William (1786). ''Observations relative chiefly to Picturesque Beauty made in the year 1772, On Several Parts of England; Particularly the Mountains, and Lakes of Cumberland, and Westmorland.'' London : R. Blamire.

External links

Video footage of the Lodore Falls
Waterfalls of Cumbria {{Cumbria-geo-stub