The River Irt is a river in the county 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 ...

in northern

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. It flows for approximately from its source in

Wast Water Wast Water or Wastwater () is a lake located in Wasdale, a valley in the western part of the Lake District National Park, England. The lake is almost long and more than wide. It is a glacial lake, formed in a glacially 'over-deepened' valley ...

to its estuary at

Ravenglass Ravenglass is an English coastal village in west Cumbria that lies between Barrow-in-Furness and Whitehaven, on the estuary of three rivers: the Esk, Mite and Irt. It is the only coastal village in the Lake District National Park. Formerly in ...

. The name of the river is believed to derive either from the

Old English Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

''gyr'' which means "mud", or from the Brittonic words ''*ar'', "flowing", or ''*īr'', "fresh, clean, pure", suffixed with ''-ed'', a nominal suffix meaning "having the quality of...".

Course

The River Irt flows from the south-western end of

, the deepest lake in

is fed by a number of streams, but principally the Mosedale and

Lingmell Lingmell is a fell in the English Lake District, standing above the village of Wasdale Head. It is an outlier on the north-west flank of Scafell Pike, England’s highest mountain. Topography Although standing in the shadow of its taller parent ...

becks that enter the lake at its eastern end, on the north-western side of

Scafell Pike Scafell Pike () is a mountain in the Lake District region of Cumbria, England. It has an elevation of above sea level, making it the highest and the most prominent mountain in England. The mountain is part of the Scafell massif, an extinct v ...

. The Irt leaves the lake at the foot of Whin Rigg, the southern peak of the famous Wastwater Screes, and flows in a south-westerly direction. In its first few miles the river receives the waters of the Greathall, Cinderdale, Black and Kid becks, and passes the village of

Nether Wasdale Nether Wasdale is a village in Cumbria, England, located in the valley and civil parish of Wasdale, near the River Irt and just over a mile to the west of the Wastwater lake. Notable features The main church in Nether Wasdale is St Michael & ...

, before reaching its confluence with the

River Bleng The River Bleng is a tributary of the River Irt in the county of Cumbria in northern England. The river gives its name to the valley that it flows through which is called Blengdale. It is thought that the name Bleng is derived from the Old Nor ...

. The River Irt then flows through the villages of Santon Bridge and Holmrook, where it is crossed by the A595 coast road. The river then passes just to the south of

Drigg Drigg is a village on the coast of the Irish Sea in the Cumberland district of the county of Cumbria, England. It borders the Lake District National Park. Next to the village is the site of the UK's low-level radioactive waste storage facility. ...

. At Drigg Holme

packhorse bridge A packhorse bridge is a bridge intended to carry packhorses (horses loaded with sidebags or panniers) across a river or stream. Typically a packhorse bridge consists of one or more narrow (one horse wide) masonry arches, and has low Parapet#Bridg ...

it is crossed by the Cumbria Coastal Way long-distance footpath, and shortly thereafter by the Cumbrian Coast railway line just south of Drigg railway station. Between the footpath and railway bridges the river becomes tidal. After the railway bridge, the River Irt widens into an estuary and turns south, flowing through the Drigg Dunes and Irt Estuary Nature Reserve before joining the River Esk and

River Mite The River Mite is a river in the county of Cumbria in northern England. The valley through which the river Mite runs is called Miterdale. The name Mite is thought to be of British origin and related to a root such as 'meigh': to urinate or dr ...

Ecology

In the 19th century the River Irt was famous for the extremely rare black pearls that grew in its

freshwater pearl mussel The freshwater pearl mussel (''Margaritifera margaritifera'') is an endangered species of freshwater mussel, an Aquatic animal, aquatic bivalve mollusc in the family Margaritiferidae. Although the name "freshwater pearl mussel" is often used fo ...

s. Poaching of the pearls was thought to have led to the mussels becoming extinct in the River Irt, however, a very small number have survived. The West Cumbria Rivers Trust carried out conservation work on the river between February 2015 and February 2018 to try and protect the habitat and prevent the complete eradication of the freshwater mussel from the river. In 2023, evidence of mussels reproducing in the river was found for the first time since 2010.

References

External links

Irt, River 1Irt {{England-river-stub