Specific Location: Ullswater

Aira Force

Aira Force on the A592, 3 miles from Glenridding, is probably one of the best know waterfalls in the Lake District, especially after appearing in three of William Wordworths poems. The name derives from the Norse word for waterfall, ‘fors’, and Aira Force is where the Aira Beck plummets 66 foot down toward Ullswater.

0

The Somnambulist by William Wordsworth

List, ye who pass by Lyulphs Tower
At eve; how softly then
Doth Aira-force, that torrent hoarse.
Speak from the woody glen!
Fit music for a solemn vale!
And holier seems the ground
To him who catches on the gale
The spirit of a mournful tale,
Embodied in the sound.

St Patrick’s Well

Around 450AD St Patrick, patron saint of Ireland is supposed to have preached on the banks of Ullswater in Cumbria. The whole Patterdale area is named after him. In Glenridding a Holy Well dedicated to St Patrick can still be found roughly one mile outside of the village of Glenridding.