Pure water from the depth of the mountain

Helvellyn, Lake District This fresh running drinking water is always available, whether there has been rain or drought; it is an elixir from Mother Nature's cooler, with or without ice (in winter)

Of all the places in Lakeland where you can be guaranteed to find fresh running drinking water, Brownrigg Well is the highest. It graces Helvellyn (950m) 100m or so below the summit and has long assuaged the thirsts of shepherds and fell runners. Knowing its location means there is less need to carry bottled water uphill. Although called a "well", this is not a place to retrieve water in a bucket, but a spring that flows from the hillside. Always available, whether there has been rain, as in recent weeks, or drought, it is an elixir from Mother Nature's cooler, with or without ice (in winter). I can testify to this after tasting a bottle of the stuff brought down by friends.

The late Ernie Brownrigg, who was the shepherd for Manchester Waterworks, once took me to task for suggesting the well was named after him. "Don't listen to the 'lees' that folk tell you," he said, twanging his galuses (braces) while playing dominoes in the King's Head Inn at Thirlspot by the A591. "Don't claim I was that Brownrigg. I don't ken who it was."