Qualla: Hartsop

Hartsop: Introduction

Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Mick Garratt, CC BY-SA 2.0. Some Cumbrian dalesman, sometime in the 18th century, came home from the fields to find that someone had extended Hartsop Hall across the old right-of-way he was used to walking. The hall stood between his house and somewhere he wanted to go. He refused to walk round it. So instead, the story goes, he walked through it - opening one door, crossing a room, opening the next door, and walking out the other side - and he kept doing this, day after day, until the right-of-way was officially preserved. Whether the story is true is impossible to say. That it is the kind of story people tell about Hartsop says something about the place. It is a village that resists being pushed around.

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Image: Mick Garratt | CC BY-SA 2.0

Hartsop: Stone Cottages and Spinning Galleries

Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Mick Garratt, CC BY-SA 2.0. Hartsop is small. Two streets, a footpath up to Hayeswater, a parking area at the village edge for fellwalkers, and a cluster of 17th-century grey-stone cottages crouching together against the wind. Some of these cottages still have spinning galleries - the raised wooden balconie...

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Image: Mick Garratt | CC BY-SA 2.0

Hartsop: Hartsop Hall

Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Mick Garratt, CC BY-SA 2.0. Across the valley from the village stands Hartsop Hall, in the care of the National Trust. It dates from the 16th century. In its earliest years it was the home of the de Lancaster family, then in the 17th century it passed to Sir John Lowther, ancestor of the family that would l...

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Image: Mick Garratt | CC BY-SA 2.0

Hartsop: Hayeswater, Brock Crags and the Walkers

Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ericoides, CC BY-SA 3.0. A mile east and several hundred metres up from the village lies Hayeswater, an upland tarn that served as the reservoir for Penrith - twelve miles north - from the late 19th century until 2014, when United Utilities removed the dam and restored it to an open mountain tarn. The wa...

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Image: Ericoides | CC BY-SA 3.0

Hartsop: Lead, Sheep and Quiet

Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Mick Garratt, CC BY-SA 2.0. Like many of the small dales villages, Hartsop was a lead mining community in its working life. Lead ore was found in the surrounding fells, and small workings supplemented the income from farming. The mines are gone, the spoil heaps grassed over, and the village now lives on the...

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Image: Mick Garratt | CC BY-SA 2.0

Hartsop: Brothers Water and the Pass

Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Michael Graham, CC BY-SA 2.0. Just south of Hartsop the road climbs toward Kirkstone Pass, the highest paved road pass in the Lake District. On the way it passes Brothers Water, a small dark lake that fills the floor of the valley between the village and the pass. Two brothers are said to have drowned there i...

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Image: Michael Graham | CC BY-SA 2.0