introduction to wasdale & gosforth...

In 2006, the narrow road to Wasdale was voted as providing the best view in all of England - hardly surprising given the dramatic mix of rocky screes plunging into Wastwater's inky depths and the looming grandeur of England's highest peaks beckoning ahead.

From this untamed mountain grandeur, the River Irt emerges into a gentler world of fields and farms forming the loose-knit communities of Nether Wasdale (also called Strands), Santon Bridge and Holmrook. The main village is Gosforth, famed for its 10th century Viking cross and hogback tombstones. But human occupation of the area can be traced back a long time before, to the Bronze Age settlements and burial cairns that litter the high ground.