Ennerdale Water
| Ennerdale Water | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Location | Lake District, Cumbria |
| Coordinates | Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. |
| Type | natural lake, reservoir |
| Primary inflows | River Liza |
| Primary outflows | River Ehen |
| Basin countries | England |
| Max. length | 4.17 km (2.59 mi) |
| Max. width | 1.28 km (0.80 mi) |
| Surface area | 3 km2 |
| Max. depth | 45 m (150 ft) |
| Shore length1 | 10 km |
| Surface elevation | 113 m |
| Islands | 4 |
| 1 Shore length is not a well-defined measure. | |
Ennerdale Water is the most westerly lake in the Lake District National Park in Cumbria, England. It is a glacial lake, with a maximum depth of 150 feet (45 metres), and at ½ mile to a mile (700 to 1,500 metres) wide and 2½ miles (3.9 kilometres) long is one of the smallest lakes in the area. To the west of the lake lies the small village of Ennerdale Bridge, consisting of two pubs and a few houses. It is close to the port of Whitehaven, the town of Cleator Moor and the village of Cleator.
Contents
Etymology
" 'Anund's valley'. The name Ennerdale seems originally to have derived from 'Anundar', gen.[itive] sing.[ular] of the ON pers.[onal] n.[ame] 'Anundr'/'Qnundr', and ON 'dalr' 'valley', but there has been cross-influence between this p.n. and 'Ehen', the name of the river which flows through the valley."[1] (ON is Old Norse.)
The lake has been referred to in guidebooks and maps variously as "Brodewater" (1576), "Brodwater" (1695), "Broad Water" (1760), "Ennerdale Water" (1784) and "Ennerdale Lake" in Otley's Guide (1823). It is now the Ordnance Survey convention to name it "Ennerdale Water".
Geography
The lake lies in the eponymous valley of Ennerdale, surrounded by some of the highest and best-known fells in Cumbria including: Great Gable (899 m), Green Gable, Brandreth, High Crag, Steeple and Pillar. Ennerdale Water is fed by the River Liza and other streams, and in turn feeds the River Ehen, which runs to the Irish Sea.
Although the lake is natural, in 1902 a shallow weir was added to what is probably a glacial moraine to maintain the level.[2] The lake is owned by United Utilities, which abstracts water to serve customers in the Whitehaven area.[3] However, United Utilities will stop using Ennerdale as a source of water by 2025, as the Environment Agency has confirmed that it will withdraw the abstraction licence to protect the environment of Ennerdale, its lake and the River Ehen.
Rewilding
The lake and its valley have been designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest.[4] Due to the remote location, the lack of a public road up the valley, and its management by the Forestry Commission, the National Trust and United Utilities, Ennerdale Water is not as spoiled as other lakes in the National Park by construction, activity on the lake or the trappings of intensive tourism. In 2003 the valley's three major landowners formed the Wild Ennerdale Partnership. Working with Natural England, the Government's advisor on the environment, the project has a vision "to allow the evolution of Ennerdale as a wild valley for the benefit of people, relying more on natural processes to shape its landscape and ecology".[5][6]
Wild Ennerdale celebrated its 10th anniversary in June 2013. In October of that year the project was represented at the World Wilderness Congress in Salamanca, Spain. George Monbiot, who published a book on rewilding in 2013, has argued that Ennerdale is not very wild in comparison with projects in other countries.[7] He draws attention to the lack of predators to control the numbers of grazing animals such as deer.
In March 2015, the Lynx UK Trust announced that Ennerdale was one of three locations in England and Scotland where it wanted to trial the reintroduction of wild Eurasian lynx.[8][9]
Tourism
Although it has two youth hostels, it is not much visited by hikers, tourists and cyclists. Despite being sited on Wainwright's coast-to-coast walk, Black Sail has been described as England's loneliest youth hostel.[10] In 2008 the YHA announced that it would withdraw the warden from Black Sail youth hostel as the Forestry Commission would no longer maintain the access track as a result of the rewilding project.[11] However, after protests from members the YHA decided to retain the warden service, while at the same time seeking to reduce the hostel's ecological impact.[12]
Proposed nuclear waste facility
In June 2012, it became clear that Ennerdale (specifically the Ennerdale granite to the south of Ennerdale Water) had been identified as a potential site for a Geological Disposal Facility for the UK's high and intermediate level nuclear waste. Two other sites had also been identified - Eskdale and the Solway Plain. Ennerdale wasn't named by the Managing Radioactive Waste Safely (MRWS) Partnership; rather it referred to the 'granitic rocks forming part of the Lake District Batholith'. These are the Ennerdale and Eskdale granites, formed around 450 million years ago in the Ordovician Period. This was stated in (publicly available) document 285 of the West Cumbria MRWS, a letter written by Dr Dearlove, the consultant geologist recruited by MRWS. Three smaller surface exposures of the batholith occur at Shap, Threlkeld and Skiddaw, but these are too small to be considered for the Geological Disposal Facility. In January 2013, Copeland and Allerdale Borough Councils voted to proceed to the next stage (4) of the Managing Radioactive Waste Safely (MRWS) process, but this was vetoed by Cumbria County Council. In September 2013, The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) announced their proposed changes to the MRWS siting process. These included removal of the right of veto from county councils, and a diluted role for parish councils.
Notable facts
Though the Lake District is a popular UK location for film shoots, Ennerdale has been left relatively in the shadow, with only a few brief exceptions. The closing sequences of the film 28 Days Later (2002), directed by Danny Boyle, were filmed around the Ennerdale area, and include a sweeping, panoramic view of the lake.
In 1810 a large carnivore killed hundreds of sheep in and around Ennerdale before it was hunted down and killed. The locals dubbed it the Girt (dialect: "great") Dog of Ennerdale, though it was said to have had the traits of both a dog and a large cat.
Once a year, during the last week in August, the Ennerdale Show brings local people together with agricultural displays, competitions, arts and crafts.
Former US President Bill Clinton proposed to his wife Hillary on the banks of Ennerdale Water in 1973.[13]
References
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ http://www.lakestay.co.uk/ennerdale.html
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ [1], Forestry Commission
- ↑ Wild Ennerdale
- ↑ The book is Feral: searching for enchantment on the frontiers of rewilding (published by Allen Lane). Monbiot has also mentioned Ennerdale in his on-line journalism, for example: The Naturalists Who Are Terrified of Nature
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ [2], Cumberland Echo (www.cumberlandecho.co.uk)
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ http://www.livefortheoutdoors.com/News-Landing/Search-Results/Outdoor-headlines/Special-report-The-future-of-Black-Sail-Youth-Hostel/
- ↑ (2008) Hot meals back on menu after Black Sail u-turn, www.grough.co.uk.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
