Wastwater
Wastwater in the western Lake District is the deepest lake in England, a dramatically dark and sombre stretch of water beneath the Wasdale Screes whose combination of the exceptional depth, the towering scree slopes descending directly into the lake and the view from the head of the lake toward England's highest mountains, including Scafell Pike, Great Gable and Kirk Fell, creates one of the most powerful and most austere landscape compositions available in the national park. The lake has been voted Britain's favourite view in public polls and the comparison with competing candidates demonstrates the particular emotional weight of this austere scene. The Wasdale Screes on the south shore of the lake, a great slope of loose angular rock fragments descending some 600 metres from the summit of Whin Rigg and Illgill Head directly into the water, continue below the lake surface to a depth of approximately 30 metres before the lake bed itself at 79 metres depth, making the rock slope effectively 100 metres high when the submerged section is included. The visual impact of the scree falling directly into the dark water, with no beach or vegetation to interrupt the junction, is one of the most dramatic natural features in the Lake District. The head of the lake at Wasdale Head, where England's smallest church and the Wasdale Head Inn provide the only buildings in one of the most remote inhabited valley heads in England, provides the classic view of the great fells converging. The climbing and walking available from Wasdale Head, including the most popular route to Scafell Pike, make it one of the most important mountain bases in the national park.