Easedale Tarn
There's nothing quite like sitting beside a gently burbling river, or a tarn eating your lunch. Easedale Tarn in its glacial corrie situated high in the upper valley of Easedale is over-shadowed to the north by the dark, atmospheric Slapestone Edge and Tarn Crag (Easedale). To the south is the long ridge of Blea Rigg. You might think it would be sheltered but we've found the wind can whip across the tarn keeping summer insects at bay a little too well. During Victorian times it was even more popular than it is today. A refreshment hut used to ply a good trade but little remains now just a few scattered stones.
The tarn is apparently 21m (23 yards) deep, its outfall called Sour Milk Gill on the OS 25K map or Sourmilk Gill on the OS 50K map tumbles down some lovely waterfalls which are situated right beside the path.
There are a number of pay-and-display car parks dotted around the popular village of Grasmere where you start this walk. Broadgate, at the north end, and Stock Lane at the southern approach.
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Easedale Tarn, and Tarn Crag
- Maps:
50K: 90
25K: OL4, OL5, OL6, OL7
- Start:
- NY337076 (get directions via Google Maps)
- Near to:
- Ambleside, Grasmere, Grasmere village, Keswick
- Tags:
- tarns, waterfalls
- Distance:
- 8.5km (5.3 miles)
- Ascent:
- 243m
- Min. time:
- 2 hrs 6 mins
- View in 3-D:
-
- Terrain:
- 2 - rough
- Bog Factor:
- 1 - none
- Tech Diff:
- 1 - easy
Engineered paths and steps, some quite rough sections. - Dog issues:
- You may encounter cattle.
Plenty of water in Easedale Beck and of course the tarn.
Purchases:
Buy walk in Adobe/PDF format to print or for your phone or tablet
Buy route for your GPS
Walk height profile
note that gradients are usually grossly exaggerated
Route Description
From Broadgate car park: return to the main road and turn left past the Co-op, to the Cunningham's Outdoor shop. Turn right into Easedale Road.
From the Stock Lane car park: walk into the village centre, past the church, and outside the Cunningham's Outdoor shop turn left into Easedale road.
On the wall beside the turning is a large slate sign painted "Easedale Tarn" and an arrow.
Follow this minor road past the Youth Hostel, houses and holiday cottages, and the bridge over Easedale Beck. As the road curves right, a footbridge crosses the beck on the left, opposite a post box is embedded in the wall. Cross this footbridge, over the slate bridge, and onto the track beyond. Whilst the surface is amazingly well engineered, it is as rough as old cobbled streets and quite hard work.
Easedale Beck Footbridge
Helm Crag
Go through the gate and continue on the track. The river remains on your right. Through the next gate and into the field. Beware if there are cows with calves here. At the time of survey (July 2012) cattle were in the previous field separated by a fence. With the amount of pedestrian traffic about they are probably used to people and dogs, but caution would be wise.
Easedale Valley Path
Bear right, and then left away from the track onto the path signposted "Public Bridleway". The field gradually narrows with the river back alongside. Go through the kissing gate and onto the fell.
Easedale Waterfall
The track starts climbing with a wall on the right hand side. After a while it bears left to climb alongside Sourmilk Gill. At the top of the gill the aspect suddenly opens and the tarn is revealed!
Easedale Juniper
Upper Easedale
Return by the same route.
Tarn Crag and Easedale Tarn
If you like this walk then why not try one of our other nearby walks:
Unless otherwise stated the text in this walk is the copyright of Hug Solutions Ltd trading as The Hug and the photographs are the copyright of Elizabeth Oldham. Hill data is derived from Database of British and Irish hills which is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. Maps contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right 2011 and paths © OpenStreetMap Contributors,CC-BY-SA, 2011