Aira Force History Trail

by Matterdale Community Association

Banner image: Aira Force © Beyond Imagination Photography

IMPORTANT

Before starting your walk please download and print the trail leaflet or pick one up from the Royal Hotel in Dockray. There will be sections of the walk where there is no phone signal.

Aira Force Trail .pdf

Introduction

This circular walk starts in Dockray and takes in Aira Force - about 3 miles in total. For a longer walk it can be extended by taking the Gowbarrow Loop (approx another 3 miles)

The name Aira Force is derived from Norse and means the waterfall on the river by the gravel bank. Aira Force is an impressive waterfall set in grounds owned by the National Trust. The Trust, formed in 1895 to protect places of historic importance or natural beauty, raised £12,000 by public appeal to buy the land in 1906. It was bought from Henry Howard, 15th Duke of Norfolk to prevent its sale to developers who would have built villas on the lakeshore. The land surrounding the force is a former deer park.

The walk provides a glimpse over the turrets of Lyulph’s Tower, a hunting lodge built by the Howards in around 1780. The tower and falls have been a tourist destination since the late 18th century when early tourists visited in search of the Picturesque. Lyulph’s Tower was not sold to the Trust, so today’s tourist sees only part of the original setting.

Back in the day ladies in long skirts and dainty laced boots would have climbed down the precarious banks of the gorge to see the full force of the waterfall. Today’s tourists can access much more easily with maintained pathways, steps, stone bridges and even an aerial walkway to enhance the whole visitor experience. Enjoy the walk, the poetry and history, and the spectacular views of Ullswater.

Further information about the points numbered on the map can be found in the text below.

Engraving by Thomas Allom 1835. With thanks to Carlisle Library Cumbria Image Bank

Route description

The walk starts in Dockray. With your back to the Royal Hotel (marked PUB on the map), take the track signposted Aira Force on the opposite side of the road and to the right of Dockray House, a former temperance hotel. After a gap in the wall you will see Aira Beck on your right. Note the concrete beam in the beck - this is the site of a new hydro-electricity scheme to harness the power of the water. The building below you nearest to the water was once a corn mill. (1)

The mill, known as "New Mill" is thought to have been built by 1675 as another mill, to the west of the village, was referred to as “Old Mill” by this date. The mill was owned by the Howard family (the Dukes of Norfolk). There was a kiln to dry the corn at the western end (probably peat fired). A timber leat fed an overshot waterwheel. The mill was disused by 1898. Find out more about the New Mill

Courtesy of Eddie Allen

Take the left fork signposted Aira Force, go through a five barred gate signed NT Gowbarrow Park and head right. The path leads through a gate in the dry stone wall. (2) This marks the boundary of Gowbarrow Park, a deer park which was once owned by William Rufus (William II) and later by the Howards. The white house over to your right is Park Gate (3), so called because the road through the park was once gated here. In the late 19th century the Matterdale schoolchildren were regularly disciplined for truanting in order to earn coins from passing carriages by opening and closing the park gates. From here, you will glimpse the first views of Ullswater and Place Fell beyond. Wordsworth, in his Guide to the Lakes, recommended approaching the lake from this direction for the best view. Find out more about Early Tourism

Banner Image: Etching of William Westall's Ullswater from Gowbarrow Park, published by Rudolph Ackerman in 1834. Courtesy of Christopher Donaldson

Descend the path, through a small gate and continue straight on. The path descends to High Cascades. Do not cross the wooden bridge but remain on the left bank following a wooden finger post towards Aira Force. Stay on the higher path and just before you come to a gate take the path down on your right towards the beck. (4) Pause here at the viewing area on your right and look upstream at the waterfalls. The poet William Wordsworth was enchanted by this valley where, he suggested “the lover of Nature might linger for hours”. He penned a poem, Airey-Force Valley in 1836. Read more about William and Dorothy Wordsworth's connections with the Ullswater Valley.

Wordsworth's daffodils on the shore of Ullswater © Anne Clarke

Now follow the path downstream with the beck on your right. You will come to a stone arched bridge from which you can look down over Aira Force. (5) The bridge was dedicated to the brothers Stephen and Gerald Spring Rice around the turn of the 20th century and replaced an earlier wooden bridge. Stephen was a senior civil servant and his brother Cecil maintained he died of overwork for his nation! Gerald was killed serving as a Transport Officer for the Border Regiment on the eve of the Battle of the Somme, 26th May 1916. The lower bridge which you can see was built in 1932 in memory of Sir Cecil Spring Rice, the British Ambassador in Washington from 1912. Cecil was pivotal in bringing America into World War I. He is best known as author of the hymn “I Vow to Thee my Country”. Find out more about the National Trust and Aira Force as well as the Spring Rice brothers.

Dedication plaque to Sir Cecil Spring Rice on the lower bridge at Aira Force © Gordon Lightburn

The falls were also the setting for another Wordsworth poem. Visiting in 1799, Wordsworth and Coleridge heard how the painter, John Glover, had stayed at nearby Lyulph’s Tower and had been awoken by the shriek of a woman. It transpired that a young woman who had lived in the house was in the habit of sleep-walking. The story gave Wordsworth the idea for his poem, The Somnambulist, 1835. Set in Arthurian times, it tells how Lady Emma, distraught that her lover, the knight Sir Eglamore, failed to return, took to sleep-walking from her home near Lyulph’s to Aira Force. One night, Sir Eglamore did indeed return and found her walking by the force, but when he touched her, she woke and lost her balance, falling to her death in the force. Lyulph's Tower also inspired poetry by Sir Walter Scott and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Read more about the poets who were inspired by Lyulph's Tower.

Lyulph's Tower and Ullswater from Gowbarrow Fell © Jane Firth

Looking downstream, retrace your steps and take the path which rises up away from the river and continue. Note the wooden posts which mark the sites of squirrel feeders in the trees so keep an eye out for red squirrels here. Find out more about Ullswater's native red squirrels and the grey squirrel management programmes that are ensuring their survival.

Red squirrel © Paul Harris

You come to a five barred gate on the left, pass through, it connects to the main Ullswater Way. Immediately ahead you can see the crenelated turrets of a building below you, Lyulph’s Tower. (6) This former hunting lodge was built in the gothic style around 1780 by the 11th Duke of Norfolk, Charles Howard and is possibly named after a Saxon chief. It was visited by early tourists in search of the Picturesque. The Picturesque experience of the late 18th century played on the emotions - a sense of terror as well as perfection and beauty. The visitor saw the spectral presence of the tower reflected in the lake and was then led through parkland planted with trees along a series of pathways, finally to be surprised by the noise and danger of the falls whose banks they descended at their peril.

Lyulph’s Tower was not sold to the Trust, so today’s tourist sees only part of the original setting.

If you wish you can extend your walk to include the walk up over Gowbarrow, follow the link https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/aira-force-and-ullswater/trails/aira-force-and-gowbarrow-trail. Otherwise bear right and pass through the small lower gate and turn left. As you descend spot the Elephant Tree on the left as the path narrows and further down on the right below the path is a 200 year old Sitka Spruce. (7) What does it remind you of?

Follow the path to the left and over the bridge, go straight ahead and then bear left towards the toilets and tea-room. Look for the Dorothy Gate, erected by Friends of the Ullswater Way in recognition of the influence that Wordsworth’s sister Dorothy had on his work. Find out more about the Dorothy Gate.

For the return journey, from the Visitor Centre, retrace your steps through the gate pausing on the lawn within the glade to admire the Pinetum. This contains 200 specimens of conifers planted in 1846 by the 13th Duke of Norfolk, Henry Howard. Take the path to your left heading uphill and as you climb up the steps you arrive at a viewing point called Park Brow with a lovely view over Ullswater.

Rejoin the main path towards Aira Force, you should hear the falls at this point. For 2021 the steps to the viewing point and lower bridge are closed but a new viewing platform and walkway should be open during early 2022. You may admire the falls from the path at this point. (8) Before the steps were built, tourists had to scramble down the rocks. In James Clark’s Survey of the Lakes in 1789 he said “If the spectator can summon up resolution to descend, he will see such a scene as will amply repay the terrors of the attempt”. Wooden bridges were built at the top and bottom in the early 19th century. Read more about Aira Force and Early Tourists.

Illustration from The Beauties of England and Wales 1805, with thanks to the National Trust

Continue along the path heading uphill. When you get to the upper stone bridge take the left fork and continue with the river on your right. At the next wooden bridge again keep to the left of the river until you reach the top bridge (High Cascades). Cross over, turn left and retrace your steps back to Dockray.