Wast Water or Wastwater () is a

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 ...

located in

Wasdale Wasdale () is a valley and civil parish in the western part of the Lake District National Park in Cumbria, England. The River Irt flows through the valley to its estuary at Ravenglass. A large part of the main valley floor is occupied by Wastwa ...

, a valley in the western part of the Lake District National Park, England. The lake is almost long and more than wide. 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 ...

, formed in a glacially 'over-deepened' valley. It is the deepest lake in England at . The surface of the lake is about above sea level, while its bottom is over below sea level. It is owned by the

National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...

Surroundings

The head of the Wasdale Valley is surrounded by some of the highest mountains in England, including

Scafell Pike Scafell Pike () is the highest and the most prominent mountain in England, at an elevation of above sea level. It is located in the Lake District National Park, in Cumbria, and is part of the Southern Fells and the Scafell massif. Scafell P ...

Great Gable Great Gable is a mountain in the Lake District, United Kingdom. It is named after its appearance as a pyramid from Wasdale, though it is dome-shaped from most other directions. It is one of the most popular of the Lakeland fells, and there are ...

and

Lingmell Lingmell is a fell in the English Lake District, standing above the village of Wasdale Head. It is an outlier on the north-west flank of Scafell Pike, England’s highest mountain. Topography Although standing in the shadow of its taller paren ...

. The steep slopes on the southeastern side of the lake, leading up to the summits of

Whin Rigg Whin Rigg is a fell in the English Lake District, situated in the western segment of the national park, 22 kilometres south east of the town of Whitehaven Whitehaven is a town and port on the English north west coast and near to the Lake ...

and

Illgill Head Illgill Head is a fell in the English Lake District. It is known more commonly as the northern portion of the Wastwater Screes. The fell is 609 metres high and stands along the south-east shore of Wastwater, the deepest lake in England. T ...

, are known as the "Wastwater

Scree Scree is a collection of broken rock fragments at the base of a cliff or other steep rocky mass that has accumulated through periodic rockfall. Landforms associated with these materials are often called talus deposits. Talus deposits typically ha ...

s" or on some maps as "The Screes". These screes formed as a result of ice and weathering erosion on the rocks of the

Borrowdale Volcanic Group The Borrowdale Volcanic Group is a group of igneous rock formations named after the Borrowdale area of the Lake District, in England. They are Caradocian (late Ordovician) in age (roughly 450 million years old). It is thought that they represent t ...

, that form the fells to the east of the lake, towards Eskdale. They are approximately , from top to base, the base being about below the surface of the lake. A path runs the length of the lake, through the boulders and scree fall at the base of the craggy fell-side. On the northwestern side are the cliffs of Buckbarrow (a part of

Seatallan Seatallan is a mountain in the western part of the English Lake District. It is rounded, grassy and fairly unassuming, occupying a large amount of land. However, it is classed as a Marilyn because of the low elevation of the col connecting it to ...

) and the upturned-boat shape of

Yewbarrow Yewbarrow is a fell, in the English Lake District, which lies immediately north of the head of Wast Water. It is 628 metres (2,060 feet) high and in shape resembles the upturned hull of a boat or a barrow. Yewbarrow is on the left in the ...

. Wast Water is the source of the

River Irt The River Irt is a river in the county of Cumbria in northern England. It flows for from the south-western end of Wast Water, the deepest lake in England, leaving the lake at the foot of Whin Rigg, the southern peak of the famous Wastwater Scr ...

which flows into the

Irish Sea The Irish Sea or , gv, Y Keayn Yernagh, sco, Erse Sie, gd, Muir Èireann , Ulster-Scots: ''Airish Sea'', cy, Môr Iwerddon . is an extensive body of water that separates the islands of Ireland and Great Britain. It is linked to the Ce ...

near

Ravenglass Ravenglass is a coastal village in the Copeland District in Cumbria, England. It is between Barrow-in-Furness and Whitehaven. Historically in Cumberland, it is the only coastal village in the Lake District National Park. It is located at the es ...

. Both the lake and Wasdale Screes are protected as

Sites 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 ...

and under European Union law as

Special Areas of Conservation A Special Area of Conservation (SAC) is defined in the European Union's Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC), also known as the ''Directive on the Conservation of Natural Habitats and of Wild Fauna and Flora''. They are to protect the 220 habitats and ap ...

Name origin and pronunciation

"Wastwater" comes from "

" plus English "water". " 'Wasdale lake' or 'the lake of Vatnsá, lake river'. The present name rather curiously contains the reflexes of both

Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and t ...

'vatn' 'water', 'lake', and

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...

'wæter' 'water', with the meaning 'lake' probably influenced by the Old Norse 'vatn'. The valley is pronounced as in ''was'', not with a hard ''a'': the name of the lake similarly but with a soft "s" as in "thou wast". The lake is named "Wast Water" on

Ordnance Survey , nativename_a = , nativename_r = , logo = Ordnance Survey 2015 Logo.svg , logo_width = 240px , logo_caption = , seal = , seal_width = , seal_caption = , picture = , picture_width = , picture_caption = , formed = , preceding1 = , di ...

maps but "Wastwater" is used with roughly equal frequency, including by its owner, the National Trust, along with the Cumbria Tourist Board, and the Lake District National Park Authority.

Points of interest

The Lady in the Lake

In 1976, ''The Wasdale Lady in the Lake'',

Margaret Hogg Margaret Hogg (c. 1939 – October 1976) was a manslaughter victim whose body was preserved in Wast Water, Lake District National Park, Cumbria for eight years. Wast Water is England's deepest lake. Life and career Margaret Hogg had worked as a ...

, was murdered by her husband and her body was disposed of in the lake. She was found after eight years, with her body preserved like wax due to the lack of

oxygen Oxygen is the chemical element with the symbol O and atomic number 8. It is a member of the chalcogen group in the periodic table, a highly reactive nonmetal, and an oxidizing agent that readily forms oxides with most elements as wel ...

in the water.Lakestay, Wasdale's Lady in the Lake Mystery
/ref>

Underwater gnomes

In February 2005 it was reported that a "

gnome A gnome is a mythological creature and diminutive spirit in Renaissance magic and alchemy, first introduced by Paracelsus in the 16th century and later adopted by more recent authors including those of modern fantasy literature. Its characte ...

garden" complete with

picket fence Picket fences are a type of fence often used decoratively for domestic boundaries, distinguished by their evenly spaced vertical boards, the ''pickets'', attached to horizontal rails. Picket fences are particularly popular in the United States, ...

had been placed in the lake as a point of interest for divers to explore. It was removed from the bottom of Wastwater after three

divers Diver or divers may refer to: *Diving (sport), the sport of performing acrobatics while jumping or falling into water *Practitioner of underwater diving, including: **scuba diving, **freediving, **surface-supplied diving, **saturation diving, a ...

died in the late 1990s. It is thought the divers spent too much time too deep searching for the ornaments. Police divers report a rumour that the garden had been replaced at a depth beyond the lowest the police were allowed to dive. PC Kenny McMahon, a member of the North West Police Underwater Search Unit, said

Water extraction

Water was first pumped from the lake during World War II to supply the Royal Ordnance Factory at

Drigg Drigg is a village situated in the civil parish of Drigg and Carleton on the West Cumbria coast of the Irish Sea and on the boundary of the Lake District National Park in the Borough of Copeland in the county of Cumbria, England. Drigg and ...

. It is pumped to the nearby

Sellafield Sellafield is a large multi-function nuclear site close to Seascale on the coast of Cumbria, England. As of August 2022, primary activities are nuclear waste processing and storage and nuclear decommissioning. Former activities included nucle ...

nuclear facility as an industrial water supply.Radioactivity in Food and the Environment, 2010
/ref> The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority is allowed to extract from the lake a maximum of a day to use on that site.

Favourite view

On 9 September 2007, Wast Water was announced as the winner of a vote to determine "Britain's Favourite View" by viewers of ITV.

Gallery

File:Wasdale from Wastwater 1.JPG, Wasdale from the shores of Wastwater.

is on the left,

in the centre and the

Scafell Scafell ( or ; also spelled Sca Fell, previously Scawfell) is a mountain in the English Lake District, part of the Southern Fells. Its height of makes it the second-highest mountain in England after its neighbour Scafell Pike, from which i ...

range on the right. file:Westmorland cairn Great Gable.jpg, The view from the cairn put up by the Westmorland Brothers to the SW of the summit of Great Gable - Wastwater in the distance. file:Illgill head from middle fell.jpg, Illgill Head with Wastwater at its foot. File:Wastwater, Yewbarrow and Great Gable - geograph.org.uk - 1546772.jpg, Wastwater looking towards Wasdale Head

Tributaries

''Clockwise from River Irt'' * Countess Beck * Smithy Beck *

Goat Gill The goat or domestic goat (''Capra hircus'') is a domesticated species of Caprinae, goat-antelope typically kept as livestock. It was domesticated from the wild goat (''C. aegagrus'') of Southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a membe ...

* Nether Beck *

Over Beck Over may refer to: Places *Over, Cambridgeshire, England *Over, Cheshire, England *Over, South Gloucestershire, England *Over, Tewkesbury, near Gloucester, England **Over Bridge *Over, Seevetal, Germany Music Albums * ''Over'' (album), by Pete ...

* Mosedale Beck * Lingmell Beck *

Hollow Gill Hollow may refer to: Natural phenomena *Hollow, a low, wooded area, such as a copse *Hollow (landform), a small vee-shaped, riverine type of valley *Tree hollow, a void in a branch or trunk, which may provide habitat for animals Places * Sleepy ...

* Straighthead Gill

In literature

In the book ''

Goodbye, Mr. Chips ''Goodbye, Mr. Chips'' is a novella about the life of a school teacher, Mr. Chipping, written by English writer James Hilton and first published by Hodder & Stoughton in October 1934. It has been adapted into two feature films and two televi ...

'', Mr Chipping meets his wife at Wasdale Head.

References

External links

The Wasdale Lady in the LakeThe Cumbria Directory - Wast Water
{{authority control Lakes of the Lake District Borough of Copeland Underwater diving sites in England Cumberland Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Cumbria Special Areas of Conservation in Cumbria LWast