The A592 runs alongside the lake towards Glenridding, a one time mining village, but these days totally geared to tourism. The village has a National park Information Centre within the car-park, and which inside has been re-created a mine shaft of the Glenridding mines.
As a matter of interest the village's darkest hour was in 1929 when the nearby reservoir of Kepple Cove burst and some quarter of a million gallons of water swept down, battering and flooding the village. The damage, as to be expected, was great, but fortunately there were no casualties.
Visitors to the area may be interested in learning that the lakeshore walk from Howtown to Glenridding somehow has the edge over just about all other waterside walks in the Lake District. Its quality, one imagines has something to do with the constantly changing vistas, the alternations of the mixed woodlands, and open pasture, and possibly the slight rises and falls in the path itself, all of which give the walk a third dimension all of its own. Many guided walks start from the car park in Glenridding, with one of the most popular being to Helvellyn at 3116 feet. Or the less energetic can start from the old Greenside Mine (now a hostel). Helvellyn is undoubtedly one of the Lakeland giants...the highest peak incidentally after Scafell Pike and Scafell. The summit, once reached, is grassy, remarkably flat, and friendly. So flat that, once, an aircraft was landed here. Walkers should look for the Gough memorial, which commemorates the spot where in 1805 a dog guarded his master's body for three months after a fatal accident...an event that inspired both Wordsworth and Scott. Helvellyn is certainly one of the most popular walks for fell walkers...in sunny weather there can be hundreds of people on its slopes at one time. On striding Edge, a precipitous ridge, is a plaque about one articularly stupid member of the local gentry who was thrown from his horse on the Edge while foxhunting.
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