Blelham Tarn - Izeria

Blelham Tarn is a large valley tarn in the Lake District of England, to the north of the hill Latterbarrow. The settlements of Outgate, Low Wray and High Wray are close by. The tarn is drained to the northeast by the short Blelham Beck into Windermere. This beck was previously straightened and lowered. Fish species in the tarn include brown trout, eel, perch, pike and roach, much of the tarn shore is reedbed and waterfowl present can include great crested grebe, whooper swan and golden-eye. The tarn is regularly monitored by the United Kingdom Lake Ecological Observatory Network and is characterised as eutrophic and monomictic and has suffered from agricultural water pollution with large quantities of blue-green algae in the summer. The lake temperature at various depths varied over the period July 2012 to November 2014 between 2 and 25 Celsius as the air temperature (3 m above the surface) varied between -3 and 22 Celsius. Over the same period the pH varied from 6.4 to 9.8 and the dissolved oxygen ranged from 7 to 14 mg/L. Blelham Tarn and Bog, with a total area of 49 hectares, is designated a site of special scientific interest and Blelham Bog is designated a National Nature Reserve The bog contains various species of sphagnum moss, bog myrtle, cotton-grass and the white-beaked sedge; and rare caddis-flies and vertigo lilljeborgi.

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RMS Wray Castle

RMS Wray Castle was a training college for Merchant Navy radio officers based at Wray Castle in the Lake District, from 1958 to 1998. At 11:40 p.m., on 14 April 1912 the RMS Titanic hit an iceberg. The collision opened five of her watertight compartments to the sea; the ship gradually filled with water and by 2:20 a.m., she broke apart and foundered, with well over one thousand people still aboard. Two hours after Titanic foundered, the Cunard liner RMS Carpathia arrived and took aboard an estimated 705 survivors. There was worldwide shock at the huge loss of life and the procedural errors that had led to it. Public inquiries in Britain and the United States led to major improvements in maritime safety. One of their most important legacies was the establishment in 1914 of the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS), which still governs maritime safety today. Additionally, several new wireless regulations were passed around the world in an effort to learn from the many missteps in wireless communications—which could have saved many more passengers. Primary to these improved regulations were the installation of radio equipment on ALL ships, fixed Distress frequencies and 24-hour watch on those frequencies. During the forty years that the college was in operation students studied the SOLAS Radio Procedures & Regulations, MRGC (Maritime Radiocommunications General Certificate including Morse Code), SCOTVEC (Maintenance of Radar Equipment), and the maintenance and repair of Maritime Radio and Radar equipment.

Site historique Site remarquable

Wray Castle

Wray Castle is a Victorian neo-gothic building at Claife in Cumbria within the boundaries of the historic county of Lancashire. The house and grounds have belonged to the National Trust since 1929. The Castle was open to the public for a dozen years prior to 2024. The Castle is now closed for refurbishment until 2027. While the castle and its ancillary buildings are protected under the National Heritage List for England, the grounds are not registered as a historic park or garden. The estate lies within the Lake District National Park, itself a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which provides landscape‑level recognition. The grounds, which include part of the shoreline of Windermere, are open all year round and are renowned for their selection of specimen trees. The planting of conifers (including Wellingtonia) reflects the thinking of the Picturesque movement. There are also examples of Ginkgo biloba, weeping lime and varieties of beech.

Château Site historique

Latterbarrow

Latterbarrow is a hill in the English Lake District, east of Hawkshead, Cumbria. It is the subject of a chapter of Wainwright's book The Outlying Fells of Lakeland. It reaches 803 feet (245 m) and is surmounted by a monument, but Wainwright, unusually, makes no comment on the monument's age or purpose, merely mentioning this "... elegant obelisk being prominently in view from Hawkshead and the Ambleside district." He recommends an anticlockwise circuit from Colthouse, near Hawkshead, and describes it as "a circular walk needing little effort yet yielding much delight". The name may indicate a hill where animals had their lair, from Old Norse látr, a lair or sty, and berg, a hill.

Randonnée Site remarquable

Brockhole

The Brockhole Lake District Visitor Centre, also known as the Brockhole National Park Visitor Centre, is a visitor centre and tourist attraction managed by the Lake District National Park Authority. It is situated on the shore of Lake Windermere, roughly equidistant between the towns of Bowness-on-Windermere and Ambleside. It includes the Brockhole house and 30 acres (12 ha) of grounds, including 10 acres (4.0 ha) of formal gardens and an adventure playground. The centre organises a number of activities, including orienteering, kayaking and open water swimming, as well as regular exhibitions. In March 2025, The Visitor Centre and Cafe was permanently closed by the National Park Authority, although the grounds remain open. Entrance to the grounds is free of charge, although a charge is made for car parking.