It is thought that the Christian religion was spread in Cumbria by missionaries from the fifth century AD. Legend has it that St Patrick passed through Patterdale in this period and that the place name is derived from his visit – St Patrick’s Dale – although this is not certain. The historian Bede left written evidence of a monastery in Dacre. The date of its foundation is not known, but his chronicle records its existence by 728 when, Bede wrote, a priest called Thrythred possessed a piece of St Cuthbert’s hair which cured a monk who would otherwise have gone blind.

By the early 900s, peaceful Norse settlers began to arrive from Ireland and the Isle of Man. They favoured the upland areas which had not previously been colonised, generally at a height of around 900 – 1,000 feet. Evidence of colonisation can be found in place names derived from Norse. In Matterdale, for example, Ulcat Row, a linear settlement, may derive from the Norse meaning house where the owls are. The name Ullswater may come from the Norse for Ulf’s Water, Ulf being a Nordic chief, or alternatively from the Norse word Ulf meaning wolf. Many other names associated with the Ullswater landscape are derived from Norse such as beck, dale, force and fell. The word Herdwick, the breed of sheep for which our area is famous, comes from the Norse “herd-vic” meaning the pasture where the sheep are kept. There is genetic evidence that these sheep were brought here by the Norse settlers and were ideally suited to upland grazing.