Ennerdale Water
Ennerdale Water is the most westerly of the lakes in the English Lake District National Park, and it occupies a uniquely remote and unspoiled position that sets it apart from nearly every other body of water in the region. Unlike Windermere, Coniston, or Ullswater, Ennerdale Water has no road running along its shores, no tea rooms at its edge, and almost no built infrastructure to speak of beyond a small car park at its eastern end. This deliberate restraint, maintained over many decades, has allowed the lake and its surrounding valley to retain a quality of wildness that is increasingly rare in England. The lake is roughly four kilometres long and about one kilometre wide, making it a modest but deeply atmospheric stretch of water, and it sits at an elevation of around 113 metres above sea level, cradled by fells that rise steeply on both flanks.
The history of Ennerdale Water is bound up with both the geology of the Lake District and the long human relationship with Cumbrian uplands. The lake occupies a glacially carved valley, scoured out during the last Ice Age by glaciers that ground through the ancient Skiddaw Group and Borrowdale Volcanic rocks that make up the surrounding fells. The valley's settlement history stretches back to prehistoric times, and Norse place names throughout the area — Ennerdale itself derives from the Old Norse personal name Anundr combined with dalr, meaning valley — reflect the Viking-era settlers who arrived in the region from Ireland and Scotland around the ninth and tenth centuries. For centuries the valley was used for sheep farming, iron production, and, later, forestry. In the twentieth century the lake became a reservoir supplying water to the West Cumbrian towns of Whitehaven and Workington, a function it still serves today, which is part of the reason access has historically been so carefully managed.
Ennerdale Water's physical character is one of austere, almost brooding beauty. On calm days the surface of the lake acts as a perfect mirror, reflecting the dark ridgelines of the fells above — Crag Fell and Bowness Knott on the northern shore, and the great bulk of Pillar and High Stile forming the distant skyline to the south and east. In rougher weather the lake becomes choppy and grey, the wind funnelling down the valley and breaking the surface into white-capped waves. The water itself is exceptionally clear and very cold, with a slight peaty tinge that deepens to an inky darkness when cloud shadows pass across it. The shores are rocky and uneven, with shelves of slate and rounded glacial stones along the water's edge. Walking around the lake, particularly on the southern side, brings you close to the water and gives a strong sense of the valley's scale and enclosure. The sounds here are primal: the cry of buzzards overhead, the rush of becks tumbling down from the fells, wind in the conifers, and, quite often, a profound and restorative silence.
The wider valley of Ennerdale is the subject of one of the most ambitious rewilding projects in England. Wild Ennerdale, a partnership involving the Forestry Commission, Natural England, the National Trust, and United Utilities, has been working since 2003 to allow the valley to evolve more naturally, reducing intervention and gradually transitioning parts of the commercial Sitka spruce plantation that once dominated the valley floor toward a more diverse, native woodland character. Herds of Galloway cattle have been introduced to graze freely, helping to shape the vegetation more naturally. The upper reaches of the valley, known as the Ennerdale Forest or sometimes High Stile range, offer serious walking country, including access to the summit of Pillar, one of the classic Lake District peaks, with the celebrated Pillar Rock — a distinctive crag beloved of Victorian climbers — visible from the valley below.
The lake also forms a key section of Wainwright's famous Coast to Coast walk, the long-distance footpath that stretches from St Bees on the Cumbrian coast to Robin Hood's Bay in North Yorkshire. Many walkers on this route pass along the southern shore of Ennerdale Water on the first or second day of the walk, often finding it a quietly moving early encounter with the fells after the coastal start. This connection to one of England's most popular long-distance trails brings a steady stream of walkers through the valley, though the absence of facilities means the majority pass through rather than linger.
For practical visitors, the most common approach is via the small hamlet of Ennerdale Bridge, which lies a few kilometres to the west of the lake and can be reached from the A5086 road running between Cockermouth and Egremont. From Ennerdale Bridge a single-track lane leads east to the Bowness Knott car park at the western end of the lake, which is operated by Forestry England and requires a parking fee. From this point walkers can follow tracks along either shore of the lake and continue into the valley beyond. There is no public transport of any significance serving the valley, so a car or bicycle is essentially required. The nearest towns with accommodations and services are Cleator Moor, Cockermouth, and Whitehaven. The lake is open year-round, but the best visiting seasons are late spring and autumn, when the light is dramatic, the midges are manageable, and the fells take on extraordinary colours. Swimming in the lake is not formally encouraged given its status as a water supply reservoir, though wild swimmers do visit.
One of the more fascinating and poignant aspects of Ennerdale's history is the story of a wolf hunt that allegedly took place in the valley in 1734, said to be one of the last wolf hunts in England. While the historical evidence for this specific event is debated, the legend has attached itself firmly to the valley, lending it an additional layer of ancient, wild mythology. Whether or not wolves genuinely roamed these fells into the eighteenth century, the story fits perfectly with the character of the place: a valley so cut off, so deeply shadowed by its surrounding fells, and so sparsely settled that it is easy to believe it might have harboured the last wild wolves in England long after they had been extirpated elsewhere. The story persists locally and adds to the sense that Ennerdale Water is not just a lake, but a place where England's wilder and older self has been quietly, stubbornly preserved.