Qualla: Red Tarn

Red Tarn: Introduction

Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit CC BY 2.5. There is a moment, climbing up from Glenridding toward Helvellyn, when the path rises over a low rock step and Red Tarn comes suddenly into view. The water sits at 718 metres above sea level in a near-perfect glacial corrie, walled on three sides by the high crags of Helvellyn's eastern face. Striding Edge runs down one side. Swirral Edge runs down the other. Catstye Cam, the small pointed peak that looks like a child's drawing of a mountain, rises directly above. There is no other path to here. There is nothing here except the water, the wind, and a population of fish that has been holding on in this corrie since the last ice age.

Read more: Red Tarn on Qualla

Image: CC BY 2.5

Red Tarn: Carved by Ice

Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Charles Rispin, CC BY-SA 2.0. Red Tarn is what geographers call a corrie tarn - a lake that fills the bowl left behind when a glacier melts. The glacier in question used to live here. It carved the eastern face of Helvellyn during the last ice age, then began to retreat about ten thousand years ago, then melt...

Read more: Red Tarn on Qualla

Image: Charles Rispin | CC BY-SA 2.0

Red Tarn: A Fish from the Ice Age

Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Dave Croker, CC BY-SA 2.0. Red Tarn is one of only four lakes in Britain that still hold the Schelly, a small whitefish in the same family as the salmon. Schellies are relict populations - left behind in deep cold lakes when the climate warmed after the last ice age, isolated from one another, slowly evolv...

Read more: Red Tarn on Qualla

Image: Dave Croker | CC BY-SA 2.0

Red Tarn: A Victorian Dam

Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit CC BY 2.5. In the nineteenth century the Greenside lead mine, in the valley below at Glenridding, needed water to drive its machinery. The miners dammed the outflow of Red Tarn with boulders and raised the water level by eight or nine feet. The result was a hydroelectric reservoir, three mi...

Read more: Red Tarn on Qualla

Image: CC BY 2.5

Red Tarn: The Last Rest Stop

Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Gary Rogers, CC BY-SA 2.0. For walkers climbing Helvellyn from the east, Red Tarn is the natural last rest stop before the final ascent. The path from Glenridding climbs steadily up to Hole-in-the-Wall, then descends slightly to the tarn shore. Most walkers stop here for water and a sandwich before tacklin...

Read more: Red Tarn on Qualla

Image: Gary Rogers | CC BY-SA 2.0

Red Tarn: The Other Red Tarn

Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Wikierpedia at English Wikipedia, Public domain. Confusingly, the Lake District has two tarns called Red Tarn. The smaller, less-visited one sits between Pike of Blisco and Cold Pike, west of the Langdale valleys, at a slightly lower elevation. It is a quieter spot - no Schelly, no Victorian dam, no walking-route fame. The Helv...

Read more: Red Tarn on Qualla

Image: Wikierpedia at English Wikipedia | Public domain