Wild Haweswater

Directions Website

Wild Haweswater Account managed by Annabel Haweswater is wild and wonderful, best explored with sturdy boots, a backpack and a map!

The only official page of the landscape restoration partnership between the RSPB who manage the site, and our landlord United Utilities, in the beautiful, rugged, eastern Lake District National Park. . The site stretches across 30 sq km of rushing streams, ancient woodland, valley mires, wildflower meadows and dramatic mountains. FACILITIES
Please note that Wild Haweswater does not have a visitor centre, public hides, toilets or cafe - so bring a picnic and a raincoat, and enjoy exploring our beautiful valleys and fells. There are a variety of wildlife photography hides and experiences which can be booked online at www.wildhaweswater.co.uk


RESPONSIBLE TOURISM
At Wild Haweswater, we're demonstrating that nature restoration and farming can thrive together. Much of our work is hidden within the landscape, where we're restoring natural processes to benefit wildlife, water and people; for example by restoring peat bogs, rewiggling Swindale Beck, and replanting lost trees. Within these restored habitats wildlife is returning, such as nesting birds on rougher ground, red squirrels in the trees, scarce alpine flowers on the crags and peregrines in the skies. Alongside these beautiful, restored habitats we manage livestock including sheep, cattle and occasionally fell ponies, which move through the landscape regularly to allow plant life to return. Please do consider these special habitats, species and our livestock when visiting Haweswater. Stay on trails as much as possible, keep dogs on leads during the nesting season and when livestock are near, and remember to close gates. Discover how to explore our wild spaces responsibly at https://bit.ly/3BlELQz


STAY LOCAL
There are many excellent accommodation providers in the local area. You can explore some of them at www.lakedistrict.gov.uk/visiting/where-to-stay


PAGE RULES OF CONDUCT
Welcome to the only official RSPB Haweswater page. The purpose of this page is for everyone to enjoy wildlife sightings, photos, news, events and updates from your favourite nature reserve. We hugely encourage you to share sightings, photos, pose questions and have discussions about the site. We all have a love of Haweswater, so please assume positive intent in each other. Whether you are new to visiting, have been coming for years, or have never actually been but hope to one day, then all are welcome in this group. This official page is managed by some of our staff and volunteers. Please note, it will be checked on weekdays during work hours of 9am-5pm but is not staffed throughout that whole period. If you have specific feedback or a complaint to make please contact us by phone on 01931 713376 during office opening hours (Monday-Friday, 9am-5pm) or email [email protected]. You can find lots of information on our website www.wildhaweswater.co.uk as well. We encourage polite, friendly discussion, but personal insults, abusive or threatening language will not be tolerated, so please be respectful of each other and of our staff and volunteers. Any comments that include swearing or are deemed offensive will be removed and if individuals continue to post these types of comment to the page, then we may block them. Photography is allowed and encouraged on the reserve. Whether you have specific kit or just your camera phone, the wildlife and landscape of the reserve provides beautiful photography opportunities throughout the seasons. Please follow these considerations:

- Stick to the designated areas for visitors and adhere to any signage.

- When it comes to nature photography, please always remember the welfare of the subject is more important than the photograph, so follow the Nature Photographers' Code of Practice https://bit.ly/NaturePhotoCode.

- Why not consider booking one of our wildlife photography hides for those extra special photos of badgers, red squirrels and woodland birds. Check out our website for details www.wildhaweswater.co.uk

Cover image credit: Wild Fell, Penguin UK

🧪 We’re excited that our new RSPB Laboratory for Upland Research has opened here at Wild Haweswater this week, creating ...
22/10/2026

🧪 We’re excited that our new RSPB Laboratory for Upland Research has opened here at Wild Haweswater this week, creating a dedicated, purpose-built base for scientists, universities and students to investigate Cumbria’s upland landscapes and how they respond to nature recovery.

🐦 Our new facility has been made possible by a generous legacy from the estate of Denis Summers-Smith, an eminent ornithologist whose lifelong study of House Sparrows helped advance understanding of bird behaviour and House Sparrow declines.

👨‍🔬 Our new lab will support current research being carried out by scientists from Connect for Nature, the landscape-scale nature recovery partnership that we are a partner in, whose work and scientific monitoring spans here at Wild Haweswater, the Lowther estate and the Lowther Valley. The facility will also provide a base for visiting researchers and academic partners.

🔗 Find out more in our latest blog: https://bit.ly/LabOpening26



📸 Image 1 of Cumbria Connect Science team - Mo and Callum using the new research lab. Image 2 a plaque honouring the late Denis-Summers-Smith and image 3 taken at the official opening this week featuring Mo Verhoeven (Conservation Scientist from Cumbria Connect), Stuart Worton (good friend of Denis Summers-Smith), Will Peach (RSPB Head of Conservation Science in England and Wales), and Glen Swainson (RSPB Site Manager at Wild Haweswater). All images by Mark Williamson Photography.

We’ve got some new team members this week! 2 new Fell Ponies have joined the 4 already in Swindale as part of our conser...
15/10/2026

We’ve got some new team members this week!

2 new Fell Ponies have joined the 4 already in Swindale as part of our conservation grazing operation.

These handsome boys (geldings) are William and Jasper, joining girls (mares) Ollie, Gem, Katie and Centurion.

As the native, Cumbrian Fell breed, they are ideally suited to the rugged terrain and weather here at Wild Haweswater.

They are in Swindale Valley where they graze and trample dominant vegetation like rushes and coarse grasses, allowing more delicate wildflowers like Devil’s Bit Scabious though, which in turn is the food plant for the rare Marsh Fritillary butterfly, which recolonised here a few years ago, thanks to Fell Pony grazing. These ponies are also good at spreading wildflower seed in their dung.



📸 Image of the girls and boys taken by their owner Nicola Evans (Helmside Fell Ponies) who we borrow them from as part of our conservation grazing operation.
The boys are both Askhamgate ponies and the girls are: Nortontowers Ollie, Lyndarick Gem
Hotchberry Katie and Greenleigh Centurion

Our partner and landlord United Utilities are holding another public information event this week, at nearby Bampton Mem...
12/10/2026

Our partner and landlord United Utilities are holding another public information event this week, at nearby Bampton Memorial Hall.

Drop in on:
🗓️ Friday 16 October: 2-7pm
🗓️ Saturday 17 October: 10am-2pm

Following their first consultation events in June, they’ve been reviewing your feedback and continuing to develop plans.

Pop along to hear the latest updates on:
💧 The Blea Water restoration scheme
🌲 Planned tree works around Haweswater Reservoir
📓 The next steps for these projects

At this drop-in event you can:
👀 View the latest proposals
🤝 Meet the project team
❓ Ask questions and share your feedback
💬 Discuss any concerns or ideas

Whether you attended their first event or are joining for the first time, they’d love to hear from you, so just drop in at any time.

Your Feedback Matters. Join the Conversation.

Everyone is welcome to attend. If you're unable to join, information from the consultation, including exhibition materials and project contact details, will be available on the United Utilities website following the event: www.unitedutilities.com/my-local-area/news-in-your-area/cumbria/blea-water/

Big thanks go to the Natural England team from South Cumbria National Nature Reserves, who recently spent a day on the f...
05/10/2026

Big thanks go to the Natural England team from South Cumbria National Nature Reserves, who recently spent a day on the fell with our RSPB Assistant Warden Rhys (and his trusty band of volunteers and contractors)

They were helping build tree cages to give the trees a helping hand in the early years of their life, to protect from too much nibbling by livestock and wild deer until they’re established. Once they’re big enough, some browsing by large herbivores is a natural part of the process, but as young trees it can hinder their growth, so offering them additional protection in this harsh landscape helps get them going in areas where trees have largely been absent for some time.

This is part of a large tree planting scheme to create montane scrub - a distinct habitat type that has largely been lost from our uplands but would have been here and should and could be again. This habitat is a high-altitude natural habitat made of low, stunted trees and shrubs that grow above the main forest line on mountains. These trees will never be tall, they’ll grow low and gnarly but provide many habitat, water quality and climate resilience benefits.



Natural England
Cumbria's National Nature Reserves

Our team of RSPB staff and volunteers have been back in Swindale Beck earlier this week to get the last of the Willow in...
30/09/2026

Our team of RSPB staff and volunteers have been back in Swindale Beck earlier this week to get the last of the Willow into the bank.

Willow branches are fixed into the side of the bank using wooden stakes. This is because this particular stretch of the beck runs through our Site of Special Scientific Interest / Special Area of Conservation wildflower meadows, so we want the Willow to grow out over the river channel, not up from the bank and into the meadow, so they don’t impact the designation.

We’ve done it in previous years and it has been working well to provide cover for young fish. Even if the willow doesn’t survive it provides some cover, but many of them take root.



📸 Image of our RSPB Assistant Warden Sam and Residential Volunteers Anna and Frances, staking the Willow into the bank, taken by our RSPB Estate Worker Will.

Address

Mardale Head Car Park, Haweswater Reservoir, Nr Burnbanks, Bampton
Penrith

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Wild Haweswater posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

Share

Category