Kentmere - Geography

Geography

The narrow valley spans about 3 miles (4.8 km) in length and begins with a bowl of hills known as the Kentmere Round; a horseshoe of high fells which surrounds Kentmere Reservoir. The reservoir is now the source of the River Kent which gives Kendal its name. Access to this part of the valley is available via the Roman High Street, over Nan Bield Pass, from Troutbeck over Garburn Pass (Byway open to all traffic), or along an old bridleway up from the village. The valley is sandwiched between Troutbeck on the west side and Longsleddale on the east. It can only be accessed by road by travelling through Staveley which sits at its mouth where the river meets the Gowan beck coming in from Ings. A walk described by Wainwright in his Far Eastern Fells series as the Kentmere Round involves a 12 miles (19 km) all-inclusive round trip. In the past there were drove roads up over the horseshoe in the north to the village of Mardale which is now under the water of the Haweswater Reservoir. In the past it was a tradition of the valley's inhabitants to travel from Kentmere to Mardale village church as part of the Easter Sunday celebrations.

The River Kent begins above the reservoir in the heights of Bleathwaite Crag. It collects beneath Kentmere Common in the reservoir which was built in 1848 to control the flow of water to the lower pastures. Lingmell Gill also feeds into the reservoir. Beside the reservoir sits a disused quarry and a cottage formerly used for maintenance of the river. The river opens out into a transitory lake called Kentmere Tarn just south of the confluence with Hall Gill. The lake has at times in the past completely disappeared into marshland and in 1840 it was purposely drained to provide reclaimed farm land, but in the past 100 years the "mere" has reappeared again. It is currently 1 mile in length. An archaeological excavation there uncovered an 'extended' log boat dated to c.1300 AD (D.M.Wilson, A Medieval Boat from Kentmere, Westmorland, in Medieval Archaeology (1966) 10. 81-88). Other tributaries within the valley include Ullstone Gill, Nunnery beck, Nuttera beck, Park beck, and Hall beck. A waterfall known as Force Jump is situated just north of the village, and there are two bridges at the Staveley end of the valley. The first is called Barley Bridge and includes a dramatic weir. The second straddles the Kent further up the valley and is known as Scroggs Bridge.

A little further down the valley is the village of Kentmere, which includes Kentmere Hall and the church of St Cuthbert's. The parish of Kentmere is divided into four quarters:

• Kentmere Common,
• Green Quarter,
• Hallow Bank, and
• Crag Quarter.

Over Staveley and Hugill are also situated within the Kent valley, along with the small settlements of Elfhowe and Browfoot.

Near Kentmere Hall stands the "Brock Stone" or Badger Rock, a large free-standing rhyolite boulder. It is one of many challenges popular with climbers in the area. It is said that: "Kentmere valley has the greatest number of recorded problems in the Lake District (over 125)"

The main rocks and minerals to be found in the valley are green slate and granite. There has been some record of opal being found too though it has never been mined. Much of the local stone has been used since pre-history as the raw material for field boundaries using a local technique known as dry stone walling. Just below the reservoir is a Geological Conservation Review site known as Jumb quarry. The site is significant due to its volcanic rock which displays "bird‘s-eye tuffs", which contain lapilli (fragments of lava that erupted from a volcanic centre and probably fell into standing bodies of water). The lapilli are believed to have been spherical originally, but were squashed into elliptical shapes as a result of intense pressure during the formation of the Caledonian Mountains.