Saturday 19 September 2020

half way up Helvellyn to Red Tarn

Helvellyn is the third-highest point both in England and in the Lake District, and access to Helvellyn is easier than to the two higher peaks of Scafell Pike and Sca Fell. The scenery includes three deep glacial coves and two sharp-topped ridges on the eastern side (Striding Edge and Swirral Edge). The ridges are infamous with steep drops either side and I did not make the attempt to scramble across them to reach the peak of the mountain.

Red Tarn is a small lake in the eastern region of the English Lake District, in the county of Cumbria. It is high up on the eastern flank of Helvellyn, beneath Striding Edge and Catstye Cam. Red Tarn was formed when the glacier that carved out the eastern side of Helvellyn had melted. The lake along with three others in Lake District is a habitat for the very rare and endangered Schelly fish. Red Tarn was a dam in the nineteenth century that used boulders that raised the water level some eight or nine feet in order to supply power to the Greenside Mine at Glenridding. 




































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