ACROSS LAKELAND - A Northern Coast to Coast Walk: From St Bees to Robin Hood's Bay - page 42

Haweswater north shore
As the walk crosses from Patterdale to Mardale, Kidsty Pike offers one last lingering
look back to the central stronghold of Lakeland, shortly to be left behind for the softer,
more gentle, but no less endearing, attractions of the Yorkshire Dales and limestone
country.
With, then, one final glance of farewell, descend the long east ridge of Kid-
sty Pike. The going is simple, and the line more distinct now than of old.
After a brief skirmish with the rocky upthrust of Kidsty Howes (keep to
the left) the route drops swiftly to the shores of Haweswater, reaching the
reservoir near the site of Riggindale Farm, a casualty of the flooding of the
valley in the 1930s.
Go left at the foot of the ridge, across a bridge spanning Randale
Beck, and then down the entire length of Haweswater on a clear path
throughout, until Burnbanks is reached.
HAWESWATER
There is little along the walk to Burnbanks to detract from the pervading air of calm.
It is a quiet, restful interlude, a time for reflecting on footsteps past, an oasis in the
rigours of a long walk where we may replenish our spiritual as well as physical reserves,
plodding on peaceably.
Haweswater, once of modest proportions, was in the 1930s enlarged to provide water
for Manchester, and with it ended an era, for the building of the dam brought the de-
mise of a number of valley farmsteads, and of Mardale itself, a tiny village with the
legendary Dun Bull Inn, that now only those with long memories will recall. Passage
of time has refashioned the harsh lines of man's intrusions, though drought conditions