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Bassenthwaite, Cumbria. This village lies near the north end of the lake of the same name; to the east side of the A591, and somewhat remote from the Lakes area generally. Its people must have been remote, too, for centuries. There were Norse settlers here: “thwaite”, so common in Lakeland and Yorkshire Dales place-names, is from the Norse word for cleared land. In the Middle Ages a church was built beside the village, and in the 19^th century the Church of St John. During the coaching era Bassenthwaite was on the route to Carlisle. Armathwaite Hall, before it became a hotel, included among its owners the Speddings, the Vanes, and a family of ironmasters from Beckermet.

Bassenthwaite is a beautiful lake, lying between the smaller peak of Lord's Seat on the West, and the bulk of Skiddaw on the East. Everyone sees it from the busy route that runs along its west shore between Keswick and Cockermouth and the Cumbrian coast, from which Skiddaw is also prominent, but it is worth going round the North of the lake and coming South on the A59l past the wooded reaches of Dodd Fell for the view of the Derwentwater valley opening out with Keswick nestling at the head of its lake. It is perhaps passed by more often than visited, because considerable stretches of the lakeside are private property, and so not easy for the tourist to reach. As the most northerly of the Lakes, Bassenthwaite lies in a direct line between breeding grounds of wildfowl at Morecambe Bay and the Solway Firth, and is visited by many varieties of migrating birds. Bassenthwaite is usually called a lake, not a “water” or “mere” like the others, and has the largest catchment area of any of them. Counting the stretch from Borrowdale, it also has the longest valley.

A mile or so before the south end of Bassenthwaite in the small Church of SS. Bridget and Bega between A59l and the lake. The church is late 12^th- to 13^th-century, restored in the 19^th century, and has a Norman chancel arch and Early English features. It is one of two dedicated to St Bega, the other being at St Bees. Wordsworth and other Lake Poets knew this lakeside church, and Mire House nearby, owned by the Spedding family, also has literary associations. James Spedding, the biographer of Francis Bacon, was visited there by Tennyson, Edward FitzGerald and Carlyle.

Above the main road, near the south end of the lake's 4 mile stretch, is the white rock called the Bishop; there are various stories about its name, some saying a bishop rode up to it. Castle How at the North (near Piel Wyke) has some traces of an ancient fort, and the early British Embleton Sword was found and sent to the British Museum.

Nearby towns: Cockermouth, Keswick, Penrith, Ullswater, Wigton

Nearby villages: Allonby, Aspatria, Baggrow, Blencogo, Boltongate, Borrowdale, Bothel, Bridekirk, Brigham, Bromfield, Buttermere, Caldbeck, Dean, Gatesgill, Gilcrux, Glenridding, Hesket Newmarket, Ireby, Lamplugh, Langrigg, Lorton, Loweswater, Mawbray, Mealsgate, Mockerkin, Mosedale, Mungrisdale, Newlands, Plumbland, Red Dial, Sebergham, Sunderland, Tallentire, Threlkeld, Torpenhow, Troutbeck, Uldale, Ullock, Waverton, Westnewton, Westward

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