The Village of Watendlath

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The little hamlet of Watendlath, owned by the National Trust, sits high between the Borrowdale and Thirlmere valleys. It is 847 feet above sea level, with an attractive tarn surrounded by fells in a classic 'hanging valley'.

Watendlath beck is the source for Lodore Falls - a tourist attraction from Victorian times.

Watendlath has an attractive packhorse bridge, and a National Trust tea-room. The hamlet is reached by a very narrow road with passing places, from the Keswick to Borrowdale road.

The hamlet, which stands at 847 feet above sea level, has a highly picturesque stone packhorse bridge which crosses Watendlath Beck, the whitewashed houses have porches often filled with logs for winter fires. The name Watendlath derives from the Old Norse 'vatn-endi-hlaoa', meaning water-end barn.
On the road up from the lake are two famous viewpoints - Ashness Bridge, and Surprise View.

Watendlath was used by Sir Hugh Walpole as a setting for the fictional home of Judith Paris in his haunting Herries saga, a series of four novels published in the early 1930's.

Information is available at the National Trust shop at Lakeside, Derwentwater.