How many lakes are there in the Lake District?’ is the famous pub-quiz question. Those in the know will say only one, Bassenthwaite Lake, since all the other lakes are either tarns, meres or waters. Google AI says that a tarn is a small glacial lake, a mere is a wide lake that is often shallow compared to its size and that a water is a large lake. Yes, the AI Voice Of Truth says that a water IS a lake, but then Skynet goes on to say that water is a descriptive term and not a specific type of body of water. Reservoirs don’t ever seem to get a mention either. And just to had to add my own two penny worth, given how shallow Bassenthwaite Lake is at its southern end, I’m not sure why people class it as a lake and not a mere.
As you can see, it is all very confusing and so I’m going to ignore all the above definitions completely and come up with my own.
Massive Puddles - these are bodies of water in the Lake District that Nun Warthead deems to be worth circumnavigating.
I’ve decided that there are 16 bodies of massive puddles in the Lake District. This Venture is to walk around all of them. My Massive Puddles list includes:
Windermere - (14.8 km²)
Ullswater - (8.9 km²)
Derwentwater - (5.5 km²)
Bassenthwaite Lake - (5.3 km²)
Coniston Water - (4.0 km²)
Haweswater - 3.9 (3.9 km²)
Thirlmere - (3.3 km²)
Ennerdale Water - (3 km²)
Wastwater - (2.9 km²)
Crummock Water - (2.5 km²)
Esthwaite Water - (1 km²)
Buttermere - (0.9 km²)
Grasmere - (0.6 km²)
Loweswater - (0.6 km²)
Rydal Water - (0.3 km²)
Brotherswater - (0.2 km²)
