Tarns of the Lake District: Difference between revisions
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'''Tarns''' are situated in various different locations, both at lower level valley plains and mountainous regions of the Lake District; bygone reminders of their glacial origins. They can change form due to alluvial deposition made by the constant run off from becks (mountain streams). Over long periods of time, they can silt up the adjacent land with sand, gravel and clay, making some areas incredibly fertile, particularly those on valley floors. Many tarns are natural, a work of art in nature’s canvass, crafting and forming ever-changing scenery that will some day be unrecognisable to our present-day eyes.
There are some tarns the result of human intervention, created for our increasing need for clean drinking water, dammed and turned into reservoirs to increase capacity. More than a third, maybe even as many as 40% of the tarns in Lakeland, have probably had some form of alteration.
The word ''tarn'' is evocative of something that would not be out of place in Tolkien's Middle Earth. Yet what a tarn is can stir confusion, simply because of their diversity in size, shape, form, and purpose, especially when asking: when does a tarn become a lake? This is not always directly associated with size, as some tarns are bigger than lakes. This is where things can become ambiguous and convoluted. So, let's start off with something else; how many tarns are there in the Lake District?
==Number of tarns==
This has come up several times in various print and online source material. Exactly how many tarns are there in the Lake District? Firstly, defining a boundary makes a difference to the overall count. Cumbria and the Lake District are two different entities. The latter sits firmly inside the former, yet it is the Lake district that contains the majority of tarns in their various forms. Attempting to count all the smaller bodies of water on the Ordnance Survey maps – everything except the 17 big lakes – can be arduous and tedious, especially when missing some or counting others more than once. This is when consulting Dr Alan Smith's excellent resource on the subject, ''The Smaller Lakes and Tarns of Lakeland'', saves time and lessens frustration.
Looking at the broader picture, there are many different bodies of water in the form of small lakes, tarns, ponds and pools. We are predominantly interested only in those within the boundary of the Lake District, however, it is still interesting to see the statistical differences between the county of Cumbria and the national park within it. A small number of these bodies of water are cirque tarns, immediately identifiable from their distinctive bowl-shaped form. The majority of the others were created from a process called areal scouring, which is described briefly below. Take into account that around 15% of the tarns in the Lake District are of artificial construction, and some are now disused and left to nature, you then start to look at tarns, and their place in the landscape, differently. Whatever your thoughts on the subject, many are special places to explore on foot.
The following data is sourced from Smith's book, which collates years of research in this field of study.<ref>Smith, p.12</ref> There are:
'''In the county of Cumbria''' there are a total of {{x-larger|1826}} small lakes and tarns. Of this number:
*{{larger|1462}} are deemed to be natural
*{{larger|364}} are deemed to be artificial: mining features, quarry ponds, reservoirs, ornamental ponds, fishing lakes etc.
*{{larger|216}} have been named on the OS maps
*{{larger|171}} have the word ''tarn'' in its title
'''Within the boundary of the Lake District''' there are a total of {{x-larger|1086}} small lakes and tarns. Of this number:
*{{larger|919}} are deemed to be natural
*{{larger|800}} have been created by areal scouring
*{{larger|167}} are deemed to be artificial
Smith makes a couple of valid points regarding the difficulties in providing an exact count, as this figure will ultimately change over time. Tarns that may have existed fifty years ago may no longer hold water, due to the final stages of silting up. Other implications that affect the overall count include the unnamed bodies of water that are not officially published on the Ordnance Survey maps.
While some of the artificial tarns may have a certain charm about them, especially as people have always been intrigued by water and the aesthetics of water in a landscape setting, other artificially "functional" or "disused" tarns do not have the same uniqueness as their natural counterparts, simply because we know they were not created by the immensity of ice that once covered this land. Whether they were created by nature or people, are large or small, deep or shallow, pretty or unsightly, romantic or industrial, they are still a part of the Lakeland landscape, and will continue to be so for many years, or even centuries, to come.
The next two sections briefly, and simply, explain what cirque and areally-scoured tarns are and how they were created.
==Cirque tarns==
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==List of tarns==
Here is an incomplete listing of some of the more well-known tarns. More will be added in due course.
{{Template:Tarns list}}
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