The wild Lakeland valley of Wast Water, England's deepest lake, ringed by its highest and most famous mountains
Open accessNational Trust land — free to wander
The road into Wasdale is long and dead-ends at the valley head, which keeps it quieter than the honeypot valleys to the east. Wast Water, the lake filling the floor of the Lake District dale, is the deepest in England, and along its south-eastern shore the ground rises in a huge fan of loose broken rock, the Wasdale Screes, tipping straight into dark water. At the head stand some of the most famous mountains in the country — Great Gable, Scafell and Scafell Pike, England’s highest at 978 metres — and this is the usual jumping-off point for the climb to the top of the Pike. The view up the valley, with the lake below and the pyramid of Great Gable at the end, was voted Britain’s favourite in a television poll, and Great Gable’s outline was borrowed for the national park’s own badge. Wasdale Head has a tiny old church among the yews, said to be one of the smallest in England, and an old inn that early rock climbers used as a base in the sport’s Victorian beginnings. The National Trust owns a great deal of the valley and its farms. Come prepared: the weather changes fast, the high routes are serious, and there are no shops once you are up the dale.
