St.Patrick’s Well

Bampton
A holy well in a pub ... what’s not to like? : )

The weather wasn’t hugely promising so, after a slow start, we headed off to Haweswater to see if much of the drowned village of Mardale was exposed. It was pretty low but not that exposed yet. It was also shrouded in drenching wet mizzle so we retreated back down the valley and went on a little explore down to the river and to the village shop for an interesting scone. We wussed out of the idea of a swim and went for a short wild walk at Burnbanks (extra) where a red squirrel did it’s flying fox impressions and the farmer was bringing the sheep down off the fells in a large drove.
We headed down to the Mardale Inn which has recently been reopened as a community pub. They have made such a good job of it and they were very friendly. The last time I came here was about 30 years ago with my parents when they were visiting and when the pub was then known as St. Patrick’s Well.
Of course, I had to ask if I could see the well which I had read was here. I can’t find anything much about it other than it is marked on historic maps and it has associations with Shap Abbey.
The woman then showed us out the back where there’s a very splendid lime kiln. I think she was a bit taken aback by my excited enthusiasm and probably thought I needed to get out more.