Easdale Tarn
One of the larger Lake District tarns and a popular spot in the summer, Easdale Tarn was referred to by the poet Thomas de Quincey as a 'Chapel within a Cathedral'.
Easdale Tarn
The tarn lies in a high Lakeland valley and is about a two mile walk from Grasmere up a moderately easy path which follows the course of Sour Milk Ghyll. The hanging valley, in which Easedale Tarn lies, has the appearance of a crater, en-closed by steep hillsides that rise on the right to Tarn Crag and on the left, Castle How and Blea Rigg. The lake fills the vast hollow, draining water from the surrounding hills and releasing it at its narrow mouth into Sourmilk Gill. Around the lake lie grassy hillocks, piles of glacial debris left by the retreating ice as it melted some 20,000 years ago.
Sour Milk Ghyll as it leaves Easdale Tarn
Sourmilk Gill, which derives its curious name from its white, swirling waters, flows out of the tarn and descends through a series of impressive waterfalls. Dorothy Wordsworth referred to Easedale as the 'Black Quarter', describing the sombre and melancholy appearance it adopts when heavy storm clouds gather. In those days, the cascades were known as Churn Milk Force, and she likened them 'to a broad stream of snow'.
The path up to the tarn, following the course of the series of waterfalls along Sour Milk Ghyll
A walk to Easedale Tarn from Grasmere
*Starting at the centre of Grasmere village progress down Easedale Road, signposted to Easedale Tarn. Turn at the signed footpath on the left over a bridge across Easedale Beck. Beyond, a wide track passes through two gates and crosses a slab bridge. After crossing meadows, the path begins climbing gently above a stream, Sourmilk Gill. Continue on, through another gate until the tarn comes into view.
*As an alternative to retracing your steps, an alternative route runs around the tarn, descending initially alongside Sourmilk Gill's opposite bank before crossing into the neigh-bouring valley of Far Easedale. A clear path follows the shore to its far end,
and shortly after passing a lone holly tree, dips to a stream.
*Leave the path there and follow the stream down to its junction with a second stream. Walk towards the tarn and pick up a path around its far shore, which eventually returns you to Sourmilk Gill. Stay on this bank, at first beside the stream, but later moving away to the left.
*The path eventually drops to Far Easedale Gill, joining a track from the head of the valley. Turn right and immediately cross the stream by a bridge to then follow the track to the foot of some quarries at Jack-daw Crag. Below the quarries, a walled track on the right, signposted 'Grasmere', leads through trees to a gate. Go through the gate and, as an alternative to returning via Easedale Road, immediately turn left through another gate, to follow a permissive footpath through Lancrigg Woods. The path leads to a gap in a wall.
*Follow the track , which drops back through the trees, passing two successive gates into Lancrigg's garden. Walk past the house, leaving along its drive. Ignore the crossing track just beyond the cattle grid, and continue to the end to emerge at Easedale Road. Follow it back to Grasmere