Mardale is a glacial valley in the Lake District

Lake District

The Lake District, also commonly known as The Lakes or Lakeland, is a mountainous region in North West England. A popular holiday destination, it is famous not only for its lakes and its mountains but also for its associations with the early 19th century poetry and writings of William Wordsworth...

, in northern England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. The valley used to have a hamlet at its head, called Mardale Green, but this village was submerged in 1935 when the water level of the valley's lake, Haweswater, was raised to form Haweswater Reservoir

Haweswater Reservoir

Haweswater is a reservoir in the English Lake District, built in the valley of Mardale in the county of Cumbria. The controversial construction of the Haweswater dam started in 1929, after Parliament passed an Act giving the Manchester Corporation permission to build the reservoir to supply water...

 by the Manchester Corporation

Manchester City Council

Manchester City Council is the local government authority for Manchester, a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. It is composed of 96 councillors, three for each of the 32 electoral wards of Manchester. Currently the council is controlled by the Labour Party and is led by...

. Most of the village's buildings were blown up by the Royal Engineers

Royal Engineers

The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually just called the Royal Engineers , and commonly known as the Sappers, is one of the corps of the British Army....

, who used them for demolition practice. The exception was the small church, which could accommodate only 75 people, and had an all-ticket congregation for its last service. It was then dismantled stone by stone, and the stones re-used to build a small pier and tower along the shore of the reservoir. Some 97 sets of remains were disinterred from the churchyard and transferred to Shap

Shap

Shap is a linear village and civil parish located amongst fells and isolated dales in Eden district, Cumbria, England. The village lies along the A6 road and the West Coast Main Line, and is near to the M6 motorway...

. Alfred Wainwright

Alfred Wainwright

Alfred Wainwright MBE was a British fellwalker, guidebook author and illustrator. His seven-volume Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells, published between 1955 and 1966 and consisting entirely of reproductions of his manuscript, has become the standard reference work to 214 of the fells of the...

 protested bitterly about the loss of Mardale in his series of pictorial guides to the Lakeland

Lakeland

Lakeland is primarily a toponym:*United States**Lakeland, Florida**Lakeland, Georgia**Lakeland, Louisiana**Lakeland, Michigan**Lakeland, Minnesota**Lakeland, New York**Lakeland, Tennessee**Lakeland Village, California*Canada...

 fells, having first visited it in 1930.

In response to the submerging of the village the Manchester Corporation provided an access road that runs for four miles along the south-eastern side of the reservoir to a car park at Mardale Head. From here ascents of the peaks surrounding the head of the valley, such as Harter Fell

Harter Fell (Mardale)

Harter Fell is a fell in the far eastern part of the English Lake District. The summit at lies the meeting point of three ridges, and Harter Fell forms the head of three valleys: Mardale, Longsleddale and the valley of the River Kent.-Topography:...

, High Street

High Street (Lake District)

High Street is a fell in the English Lake District. At 828 metres , its summit is the highest point in the far eastern part of the national park. The fell is named after the Roman road which ran over the summit.-History and Naming:...

 and Kidsty Pike

Kidsty Pike

Kidsty Pike is a fell in the English Lake District, standing to the west of Haweswater Reservoir. It is a subsidiary top of Rampsgill Head, but has long achieved the status of a separate fell, thanks to its classic peaked profile...

 may be made.

The abandoned village

Abandoned village

An abandoned village is a village that has, for some reason, been deserted. In many countries, and throughout history, thousands of villages were deserted for a variety of causes...

occasionally re-appears when the water level gets low, only to disappear again when levels rise. This village is the inspiration for the satirical newspaper the Mardale Times.