Burnmoor Tarn

This is one of the largest of the tarns in the Lake District. Surrounded by wet and boggy grassland, and set in a large hollow about half way between Wasdale Head and Boot. The tarn can be reached from four main directions, Wasdale Head, Boot, Miterdale and Scafell.

Map and Gallery:

 Area Map

 Burnmoor Tarn from the route off Illgill Head.

 The top section of Kirk Fell seen from the edge of Burnmoor Tarn.

 Burnmoor Lodge actually looks quite inviting in conditions like today; a place to linger, to enjoy and to soak in the surroundings. In stark contrast to this, if you should happen upon this place when the cloud is down and the wind is howling, then you're faced with an altogether different experience. One of uneasiness, where you actually feel more comfortable walking across the mist covered moor than in familiar surroundings, where, in normal circumstances you'd expect to find at least a little reassurance.

As my then nine year old Nephew said on one such day "this place gives you the creeps". I think we were both grateful of of company that day, especially while we were around the other side of the building, where we both swore that someone was watching us out of the upstairs windows.

Whilst the tallest mountains in the Lake District are close by, the tarn actually feels like it’s on the top of some vast windswept wilderness.

Even though this tarn can be reached on foot with relative ease, or at least it is by Lake District standards. I still get that feeling that I am a long way from anywhere, especially if I’m on my own. Certain places give you that feeling of, not so much loneliness, as just being alone. This is one of those places.

The tarn lies next to what was the old corpse road. The route used until 1901 to carry coffins from Wasdale to St Catherine’s Church in Boot, for burial. The road was still suitable for horse and cart well into the 20th Century.

Burnmoor Lodge looks out over the tarn, bleak and uninviting, with walled grounds. This was once a keeper’s cottage, probably a hive of activity in its day, and perhaps a little less forbidding. Now all boarded up and no longer in use. The lodge is well worth a look around, or better still somewhere to find shelter from the cold. But on cold, overcast winter days, as my nephew pointed out “it gives you the creeps”.