Claife is a

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

in the

Westmorland and Furness Westmorland and Furness is a Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Cumbria, England. The economy is mainly focused on tourism around both the Lake District and Cumbria Coast, shipbuilding and the Royal Port of Barrow, Royal ...

Unitary Authority of

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders the Scottish council areas of Dumfries and Galloway and Scottish Borders to the north, Northumberland and County Durham to the east, North Yorkshire to the south-east, Lancash ...

, England. It is situated west of

Windermere Windermere (historically Winder Mere) is a ribbon lake in Cumbria, England, and part of the Lake District. It is the largest lake in England by length, area, and volume, but considerably smaller than the List of lakes and lochs of the United Ki ...

, and east of

Esthwaite Water Esthwaite Water is one of the smaller and lesser known lakes in the Lake District National Park in Cumbria, England. It is situated between the much larger lakes of Windermere and Coniston Water in the Furness area. To the north is the villag ...

and the village of

Hawkshead Hawkshead is a village and civil parish in Westmorland and Furness, Cumbria, England. It lies within the Lake District National Park and was historically part of Lancashire. The parish includes the hamlets of Hawkshead Hill, to the north west, ...

. In the 2001 census the parish had a population of 392, reducing to 298 at the 2011 census. Settlements in the parish include two villages, Near and Far Sawrey in the south; and the hamlets of High Wray, Low Wray, Colthouse and Loanthwaite in the north. In the central area of the parish is Claife Heights, a hilly area which rises to above sea level at Latterbarrow and contains several

tarns A tarn (or corrie loch) is a mountain lake, pond or pool, formed in a cirque (or "corrie") excavated by a glacier. A moraine may form a natural dam below a tarn. Etymology The word is derived from the Old Norse word ''tjörn'' ("a small mou ...

. There is one major road in the parish, the B5285 connecting

to the Windermere Ferry terminus at Far Sawrey. At Low Wray is

Wray Castle Wray Castle is a Victorian Gothic Revival architecture, neo-gothic building at Claife in Cumbria within the boundaries of the Historic counties of England, historic county of Lancashire. The house and grounds have belonged to the National Trust ...

, a 19th-century house and grounds now owned by the

National Trust The National Trust () is a heritage and nature conservation charity and membership organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Trust was founded in 1895 by Octavia Hill, Sir Robert Hunter and Hardwicke Rawnsley to "promote the ...

. Many of the

woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with woody plants (trees and shrubs), or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the '' plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunli ...

s in the parish, including the area alongside Windermere are part of the National Trust's Hawkshead and Claife property.

References

External links

Cumbria County History Trust: Claife
(nb: provisional research only – see Talk page) Civil parishes in Cumbria Westmorland and Furness {{Cumbria-geo-stub

See also

References

External links