Loughrigg Tarn () is a small, natural

lake A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from ...

in the

Lake District 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. It is situated north 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 ...

, just north of the village of

Skelwith Bridge Skelwith Bridge is a small village in the southern area of the Lake District in Cumbria, England. Historically, Skelwith Bridge is part of Westmorland, lying on the ancient boundary with Lancashire. The civil parish is called Skelwith. Its ...

, and at the foot of

Loughrigg Fell Loughrigg Fell is a hill in the central part of the English Lake District. It stands on the end of the long ridge coming down from High Raise over Silver How towards Ambleside, and is separated from its neighbours by the depression of R ...

. "Loughrigg Tarn" is a bit of a tautology, since "loughrigg" means "ridge of the lough (lake)" and " tarn" is also the name of a body of water.

Characteristics

Loughrigg Tarn was a favoured place of

William Wordsworth William Wordsworth (7 April 177023 April 1850) was an English Romantic poetry, Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romanticism, Romantic Age in English literature with their joint publication ''Lyrical Balla ...

, who, in his

Epistle An epistle (; ) is a writing directed or sent to a person or group of people, usually an elegant and formal didactic letter. The epistle genre of letter-writing was common in ancient Egypt as part of the scribal-school writing curriculum. The ...

to Sir George Howland Beaumont Bart, likened it to “

Diana Diana most commonly refers to: * Diana (name), given name (including a list of people with the name) * Diana (mythology), ancient Roman goddess of the hunt and wild animals; later associated with the Moon * Diana, Princess of Wales (1961–1997), ...

’s Looking-glass... round, clear and bright as heaven," in reference to

Lake Nemi Lake Nemi (, , also called Diana's Mirror, ) is a small circular volcanic lake in the Alban Hills south of Rome in the Lazio region of Italy. It takes its name from Nemi, the largest town in the area, which overlooks it from a height. It was ...

, the mirror of Diana in

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

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 ...

notes that Loughrigg Tarn is "one of the most secluded of tarns", rarely being visible from the fells. He also identifies that Loughrigg Fell is the only Lake District fell to share its name with a tarn, although he might have overlooked Scoat Fell (Scoat Tarn) and Bowscale Fell (Bowscale Tarn).

References

Lakes of the Lake District Westmorland and Furness {{Cumbria-geo-stub