The Duddon Valley is a valley in the southern

Lake District National Park The Lake District, also known as ''the Lakes'' or ''Lakeland'', is a mountainous region and National parks of the United Kingdom, national park in Cumbria, North West England. It is famous for its landscape, including its lakes, coast, and mou ...

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. The River Duddon flows through the valley, rising in the mountains between Eskdale and Langdale, before flowing into the

Irish Sea The Irish Sea is a body of water that separates the islands of Ireland and Great Britain. It is linked to the Celtic Sea in the south by St George's Channel and to the Inner Seas off the West Coast of Scotland in the north by the North Ch ...

near Broughton in Furness. In its lower reaches it is bounded by the Furness Fells and Harter Fell. The part of the valley near the village of

Ulpha Ulpha is a small village and civil parish in the Duddon Valley in the Lake District National Park in Cumbria, England. Historic counties of England, Historically in Cumberland, it forms part of the Cumberland unitary authority area. At Ulpha a ...

is marked as "Dunnerdale" on

Ordnance Survey The Ordnance Survey (OS) is the national mapping agency for Great Britain. The agency's name indicates its original military purpose (see Artillery, ordnance and surveying), which was to map Scotland in the wake of the Jacobite rising of ...

maps, and upstream towards the village of Seathwaite is Hall Dunnerdale. The name "Dunnerdale" is often used as a synonym for "Duddon Valley", but people, including

Alfred Wainwright Alfred Wainwright Order of the British Empire, MBE (17 January 1907 – 20 January 1991), who preferred to be known as A. Wainwright or A.W., was a British fellwalking, fellwalker, guidebook author and illustrator. His seven-volume ''Pictorial ...

, prefer the name "Duddon Valley". He wrote in ''The Southern Fells'', "I ought to mention that I am aware that the Duddon Valley is also properly known as Dunnerdale, a name I haven't used in the book, preferring the former; just as I never refer to Blencathra by its better-known modern name of Saddleback. It's a matter of personal choice.". The "Dunnerdale Fells" are between Broughton Mills and the main Duddon Valley. The

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 ...

of "Dunnerdale with Seathwaite" includes the valley of Dunnerdale Beck as well as the main length of the River Duddon. Advertisements for holiday cottages at Hall Dunnerdale describe the cottages as being "in the Duddon Valley". From the top of the valley, steep motor roads lead west over the Hardknott Pass to Eskdale and east over the Wrynose Pass to the Langdale valleys. A less steep pass to Eskdale over Birker Fell leaves the valley at Ulpha, with extensive views of the Scafell range.

References

External links

Official Millom and Area Website
Valleys of Cumbria Furness Cumberland (unitary authority) Westmorland and Furness {{Cumbria-geo-stub