Elterwater Quarry

It was a very frustrating morning. For some reason I started to sneeze the minute I woke up, and I spent almost the entire morning streaming, sneezing and feeling very weary. It wasn’t a cold, it was an acute allergy attack and I’ve no idea what brought it on. I do get these from time to time, without really knowing what causes them, but this one was a humdinger and I felt quite poorly.

However, fortified by lunch provided by Smithers, we decided to try and go out for a walk once the sneezing bouts reduced to only every ten minutes or so! I’m pleased to say I didn’t have any more once we left the lodge. We walked through Elterwater to the fork in the road by the Langdale nature trail and took the right hand fork – a lane climbing through woodland before dropping down to reveal the Elterwater Quarry. 

The quarry on the west side of the Langdale valley has been working slate since the mid 19th century. In the valley beneath it, on the other side of the Great Langdale Beck, the area which is now the Langdale estate had been the site of a small woollen mill since the 17th century, with the wool being processed using machinery driven by the fast-flowing beck. When slate started to be mined at the quarry, an enterprising local entrepreneur decided to start making gunpowder on the site of the old woollen mill, with the necessary charcoal being made in the local woods. There are signs of the estate’s previous history dotted all around, including vast stone wheels, gunpowder cylinders, an old stove house and ancient water systems.

My main shot is of the quarry lake, which echoes the beautiful greeny-blue tint of the Elterwater slate, with a few other shots of our walk in extras.