Just when she thought she’d seen it all in the Lake District, Geneve Brand came in for quite a surprise when she headed off the beaten track in the far-eastern fells
I thought I’d tell you about the time we went to Haweswater Reservoir in Mardale, back in the autumn, as it was such a memorable day out in the hills. Not because this remote corner of the Lake District is beautiful, or because it has an unusual history. No, the reason this day will forever be burned into my mind was because we encountered some naturist hikers.
Now, we’ve been to some pretty far-flung places in the world and have seen some rather rare and unusual things, from condors in the Andes to grizzly bears in the Rocky Mountains. However, the sighting of hikers, clad in nothing but their birthday suit and a pair of boots, is as rare as spotting a yeti or unicorn, it would seem.
Later that evening, back at the on-site pub, the Brotherswater Inn, at Sykeside Camping, the landlord was somewhat taken aback with our response when he asked what sights we’d seen that day.
A local chap born and bred in Patterdale and also a keen hiker, he said he’d read about such things but had never heard of any encounters, so he assumed they were mythical creatures – the stuff of legends.
CURIOUSER AND CURIOUSER
Haweswater Reservoir is already an unusual place. It’s one of two man-made lakes in the Lake District created to supply water to Manchester. The curious part is that two villages were completely flooded in order to make way for the four-mile-long reservoir in the Mardale valley, and the remains of Mardale and Measand can still be seen when the water level is low.
Decommissioning what were farming villages at the time was quite an undertaking. Besides knocking down houses and the pub, the church was also demolished and coffins were dug up from graves and relocated. Work started on the dam in 1929 and its construction was, as you can imagine, controversial, but many supported it because of the local employment it created.
Today, Haweswater Reservoir still supplies water to Manchester, but severe drought in the Lake District in recent summers has meant that visitors are sometimes able to see the remains of the villages.
Mardale is located in the far-eastern fells, right on the edge of the national park, a stone’s throw (about three miles, as the crow flies) from Shap and the M6, so it’s perhaps not surprising that few people choose to come here when faced with the option of visiting the more popular lakes, like Windermere or Ullswater, for example. Moreover, whilst it’
