Buttermere 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 ...

in 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 ...

North West England North West England is one of nine official regions of England and consists of the ceremonial counties of England, administrative counties of Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside. The North West had a population of ...

. The adjacent village of Buttermere takes its name from the lake.

Historically History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...

Cumberland Cumberland ( ) is a historic counties of England, historic county in the far North West England. It covers part of the Lake District as well as the north Pennines and Solway Firth coast. Cumberland had an administrative function from the 12th c ...

, the lake is now within the county 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. ...

. 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 ...

, it forms part of its Buttermere and Ennerdale property.

Geography

The lake is long by wide, and is deep. It has an elevation

above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of the vertical distance ( height, elevation or altitude) of a location in reference to a historic mean sea level taken as a vertical datum. In geodesy, it is formalized as '' orthometric heights''. Th ...

of . It is situated towards the head of the valley of the River Cocker and is surrounded by

fell A fell (from Old Norse ''fell'', ''fjall'', "mountain"Falk and Torp (2006:161).) is a high and barren landscape feature, such as a mountain or moor-covered hill. The term is most often employed in Fennoscandia, Iceland, the Isle of Man, pa ...

s, notably the High Stile range to the south west,

Robinson Robinson may refer to: People and names * Robinson (name) Fictional characters * Robinson Crusoe, the main character, and title of a novel by Daniel Defoe, published in 1719 Geography * Robinson projection, a map projection used since the 1960 ...

to the north-east,

Fleetwith Pike Fleetwith Pike is a fell in the English Lake District in the county of Cumbria which reaches a height of 648 metres (2,126 feet). The fell is a well-known feature of the area as it casts an imposing presence over Buttermere and the ...

and Haystacks to the south-east and

Grasmoor Grasmoor is a mountain in the north-western part of the Lake District, northern England. It is the highest peak in a group of hills between the villages of Lorton, Braithwaite and Buttermere, and overlooks Crummock Water. Grasmoor is distingu ...

to the north-west. The village of Buttermere stands at the north-western end of the lake, and beyond this is

Crummock Water Crummock Water is a lake in the Lake District in Cumbria, North West England situated between Buttermere to the south and Loweswater to the north. Crummock Water is long, wide and deep. The River Cocker is considered to start at the north of ...

. There is a path around the lake which is about long, and at one point runs through a rock tunnel beneath the locality of Hassness. Access is by road, from

Cockermouth Cockermouth is a market town and civil parish in the Borough of Allerdale in Cumbria, England, so named because it is at the confluence of the River Cocker as it flows into the River Derwent. The mid-2010 census estimates state that Cocke ...

in the north-west; from

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'' ...

via the

Honister Pass Honister Pass is a mountain pass in the English Lake District. It is located on the B5289 road, linking Seatoller, in the valley of Borrowdale, to Gatesgarth at the southern end of Buttermere. The pass reaches an altitude of , making it one ...

; or from

Braithwaite Braithwaite is a village in the northern Lake District, in Cumbria, England. Historically in Cumberland, it lies just to the west of Keswick and to the east of the Grisedale Pike ridge, in the Borough of Allerdale. It forms part of the ...

and the Newlands Valley via Newlands Hause.

Etymology

There are two possible origins for the name "Buttermere": One, that Buttermere means "the lake by the dairy pastures" (from the Old English "butere mere"). Whaley suggests this as the correct interpretation: " 'butter lake, the lake with good pasture-land', from OE 'butere' 'butter', conveying the fertile nature of the flat alluvial land at both ends of the lake, plus 'mere' 'lake',..." Two, that it is the corrupt form of a personal name. Robert Ferguson asserts in his 1866 work, ''"The Northmen in Cumberland and Westmoreland"'' that Buttermere derives from the Old Norse personal name "Buthar", as in "Buthar's mere" (lake). This accords with local tradition, which says that the valley of Buttermere was part of the holdings of an 11th-century Norse chieftain called "Buthar" (sometimes spelt "Boethar"). Large numbers of Vikings settled in the Cumbrian area during the 9th and 10th centuries and many names in the area are of Norse origin: streams are termed 'becks', from the Old Norse ''bekkr''; mountains are 'fells', from the Norse ''fjall''; waterfalls are forces, from ''fos''; ravines are 'gills'; valleys are 'dales', from ''dalr'' (ON); and small lakes are termed 'tarns', which derives from ''tjorn'', meaning teardrop. Whaley suggests that the personal name interpretation is incorrect, but notes that the

Victoria County History The Victoria History of the Counties of England, commonly known as the Victoria County History or the VCH, is an English history project which began in 1899 with the aim of creating an encyclopaedic history of each of the historic counties of E ...

"deemed it 'not disputed that the family of the Scotic ruler, Bueth or Boet, held its own against the Norman intruder', with possession of the barony of Gillesland, for fifty years after the Norman Conquest." See article o
Buttermere
at the English Lakes.com website.

History

From his hidden stronghold at Buttermere, it is said that Jarl Buthar conducted a campaign of running resistance against the Norman invaders, from the time of

William the Conqueror William I; ang, WillelmI (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first Norman king of England, reigning from 1066 until his death in 10 ...

Harrying of the North The Harrying of the North was a series of campaigns waged by William the Conqueror in the winter of 1069–1070 to subjugate northern England, where the presence of the last Wessex claimant, Edgar Ætheling, had encouraged Anglo- Danish re ...

in 1069 right up until the early 12th century. In 1072 King William set up a garrison at

Carlisle Carlisle ( , ; from xcb, Caer Luel) is a city that lies within the Northern English county of Cumbria, south of the Scottish border at the confluence of the rivers Eden, Caldew and Petteril. It is the administrative centre of the City ...

, but the isolated garrison needed constant reinforcement and supplies. It is claimed that the Cumbrians fought a guerrilla war against the Normans for almost half a century, attacking supply wagons, ambushing patrols and inflicting great losses upon them in terms of money, material and men. The extent to which Jarl Buthar is a semi-mythological figure is unclear. He is apparently mentioned in 12th-century Norman documents, but much of his story appears to be based on local legend and archaeology, later enhanced by Nicholas Size's popular dramatised history (see below). Jarl Boethar's campaign and a final battle a
Rannerdale
(c.f. Ferguson, "Ragnar's dale") between the Normans and the Anglo-Scandinavian Cumbrians led by the Jarl is the subject of a dramatised history by Nicholas Size, called ''The Secret Valley: The Real Romance of Unconquered Lakeland'', published in 1930.

Rosemary Sutcliff Rosemary Sutcliff (14 December 1920 – 23 July 1992) was an English novelist best known for children's books, especially historical fiction and retellings of myths and legends. Although she was primarily a children's author, some of her novel ...

's YA novel ''Shield Ring'', published in 1956, imagines the lives of Jarl Buthar and his band of Cumbrian rebels, and their last stand against the forces of a Norman army under the command of

Ranulf le Meschin Ranulf le Meschin, 3rd Earl of Chester (1070−1129) was a Norman magnate based in northern and central England. Originating in Bessin in Normandy, Ranulf made his career in England thanks to his kinship with Hugh d'Avranches - the Earl of Chest ...

, Lord of Carlisle and later Earl of Chester, nearly 50 years after the Norman Conquest of England in 1066. It was clearly inspired by Nicholas Size's history, which it closely follows.

Mary Robinson Mary Therese Winifred Robinson ( ga, Máire Mhic Róibín; ; born 21 May 1944) is an Irish politician who was the 7th president of Ireland, serving from December 1990 to September 1997, the first woman to hold this office. Prior to her electi ...

(1778–1837), known as the ''"Maid of Buttermere"'' and the subject of

Melvyn Bragg Melvyn Bragg, Baron Bragg, (born 6 October 1939), is an English broadcaster, author and parliamentarian. He is best known for his work with ITV as editor and presenter of '' The South Bank Show'' (1978–2010), and for the BBC Radio 4 documen ...

's novel of that name, was the daughter of the

landlord A landlord is the owner of a house, apartment, condominium, land, or real estate which is rented or leased to an individual or business, who is called a tenant (also a ''lessee'' or ''renter''). When a juristic person is in this position, t ...

of the Fish Inn in Buttermere village.

References

External links

Buttermere information at the National Trust.The Cumbria Directory - Buttermere - Lake
A useful short history of the Lakeland area from prehistoric times to the late 14th century, Contains references to Jarl Buthar and the Cumbrian resistance movement. * Robert Ferguso
"The Northmen in Cumberland and Westmoreland"
pub. 1866, a scholarly etymology which comprehensively examines the influence of the Old Norse language and personal names on the place-names of the Cumbrian area. {{authority control Lakes of the Lake District Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Cumbria Cumberland Buttermere, Cumbria (village)