Borrowdale

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See Borrowdale, Westmorland for the valley in the southeast of the Lake District.

Borrowdale is the name of a valley in the English Lake District in Cumbria. It is located in the traditional county of Cumberland, and is sometimes referred to as Cumberland Borrowdale in order to distinguish it from another Borrowdale located in the traditional county of Westmorland.

The valley rises in the central Lake District and runs north carrying the River Derwent into the lake of Derwent Water. It is also the name of an extensive civil parish in the Allerdale district, that includes the valley and some of the fells surrounding it. According to the 2001 census the parish had a population of 438.

The waters of the River have their origins over a wide area of the central massif of the Lake District north of Esk Hause and Stake Pass, including draining the northern end of Scafell including Great End, the eastern side of the Dale Head massif, the western part of the Central Fells and all of the Glaramara ridge. Near Rosthwaite the side valley of Langstrath joins the main valley from Seathwaite before the combined waters negotiate the narrow gap known as the Jaws of Borrowdale. Here it is flanked by the rocky crags of Castle Crag and Grange Fell. The valley then opens out around Grange before the river empties into Derwent Water, overlooked by Catbells, Skiddaw and Walla Crag.

The valley is a very popular tourist location, with hotels, guesthouses, holiday cottages, bed and breakfasts, and campsites, catering for the lowland visitor as well as the hill-walker who can choose from a very wide range of popular mountains, including all the above-mentioned fells as well as England's highest, Scafell Pike.

Some time prior to 1565 (some sources say as early as 1500), an enormous deposit of graphite was discovered at the site of Seathwaite Fell near Borrowdale. The locals found that it was very useful for marking sheep. This particular deposit of graphite was extremely pure and solid and it could easily be sawed into sticks, and so the pencil industry was born in nearby Keswick. This was and remains the only deposit of graphite ever found in this solid form.

The B5289 road runs down its full length.