Dubwath Silver Meadows |

Close to Dubwath there have always been important transport routes.
The Romans had two major routes nearby, one passed via Keswick on its journey from Ambleside to Cockermouth over Whinlatter Pass. The second route took the eastern side of Bassenthwaite Lake, supplying a fort at Caermote, near Bothel, finally turning north to Carlisle.
Nowadays the A66 is hard to miss but it is surprising how the traffic noise goes away as soon as you enter the site!

There were of course, local tracks and paths around Dubwath and the surrounding settlements of Wythop and Embleton, suitable only for carts and people on foot. In the 18th century, tracks were improved by the introduction of the Turnpike Act and later on, by the A66 trunk road. The old road going through Embleton was replaced in the 1970's by the current road taking the line of the former Cockermouth, Keswick and Penrith railway.

Dubwath Silver Meadows is surrounded by hills. The rain that falls on this huge area ends up here (see map below). This makes Dubwath Silver Meadows very important - it provides somewhere for excess water to go during extremely wet periods. It also helps to improve the quality of water in Bassenthwaite Lake by filtering sediment and nutrients out of the water before it enters the lake. The Celtic Shelter almost under water in 2009. It survived remarkably well when the water receded. It was similarly flooded in 2015 and is now being rebuilt (2021).

Catchment area This map shows the huge area that collects rainwater - by far the largest in the Lake District. Dubwath Silver Meadows is shown by the little red dot!

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history of Dubwath Silver Meadows
geology of Dubwath Silver Meadows
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