Easedale Tarn
View a slideshow of our walk around Helm Crag and Easedale Tarn.
Easedale Tarn lies north west of Grasmere village and can be reached very easily involving just a light walk along Easedale road past some youth hostels and Sourmilk Gill.
The Wordsworth family lived close to Easedale Tarn at Dove cottage on the edge of Grasmere and there are a number of interesting connections. Wordsworth's autobiographical work "The Prelude" was composed following walks to and from the valley and also resulted in his poem "Who weeps for strangers" following the tragic deaths of George and Sarah Green who perished one night during their perilous attempt to descend from the mountains above Langdale head into Easedale. The next morning as the snow thickened and with no sign of their parents the six little Green children began to fear the worse. One of the children was taken in by the Wordsworth family and the account of this fateful story is described by Thomas De Quincy in Beauties.
"Who weeps for strangers? Many wept
For George and Sarah Green;
Wept for that pair's unhappy fate,
Whose graves may here be seen.
by night upon these stormy fells,
Did wife and husband roam,
Six little ones at home had left,
And could not find that home."
Wordsworth
Getting there
Grasmere lies just to the west of the A591 and there are several car parks, including roadside parking near Easedale road.
Buses:
599 (open top) Kendal - Windermere - Ambleside - Grasmere. (every 20 minutes.)
555 Lancaster - Kendal - Windermere - Ambleside - Grasmere - Keswick - Carlisle.
X8 Preston - Windermere - Ambleside - Grasmere - Keswick.
