Wast Water, Lake District
With England’s highest peak, Scafell Pike, on one side and one of its most beloved mountain pubs, the Wasdale Head Inn, on the other, Wast Water would struggle not to make the list. But it would be a contender even without this esteemed company.
Carved into volcanic rock by relentless glacial movement and swelled by burns pouring down from the Lake District’s tallest peaks, this is a place of high drama. You would be unlikely to call it pretty. On one side are the Wasdale Screes, 600m of shadowy cliffs and loose rock, shattered by thousands of years of freeze-thaw action. On the other is a crush of remote fells, yielding only the narrowest strip of land to the lane that squeezes between them and the lake. And at its head, the three peaks of Yewbarrow, Great Gable and Lingmell converge like mighty mountain gods.
Swimming here is a chilling experience, both for the drama of the location, the temperature and the vertiginous depths. Wast Water is the deepest lake in England, its brief, pebbly shore shelving off sharply to a maximum depth of 79m (258ft), 15m (50ft) below sea-level. For this reason, it’s best to approach with caution. Bringing along a wetsuit, if you’re planning to stay in its chilly depths a while, might not be a bad idea.
The best way to experience this lake though, is after a long, hot mountain day. That might be scaling Scafell Pike, threading the needle on Great Gable or completing the stupendous Mosedale Horseshoe. Whichever you do, stripping down to your pants and sliding your aching legs into that soothing water, the sunset reflected in the ripples and a pint awaiting at the end, has to be about the perfect end.
Wordsworth once described it as “long, stern and desolate”, and yes, that’s true, but only in the most epic way possible.
GRID REF: NY163060