Rigg Beck Explained

Rigg Beck is a minor river of Cumbria in England.

Rigg Beck is also the name of a famous dwelling – the Purple House^[1] – placed where the Beck crosses the Keskadale road, and which formed an excellent starting point for exploring the fells.^[2]

Source and course

Rigg Beck arises at the top of the high pass between Ard Crags and Causey Pike, of the latter of which it forms one boundary.^[3] The beck flows eventually into Newlands Beck.^[4]

The path alongside Rigg Beck forms an attractive pedestrian route between Newlands Valley and Buttermere.^[5]

Literary associations

• The Scottish poet Margot Adamson wrote of the beck “Young as the grass that fringes where it sprays,/Old as the clefts from whence it takes its flight”.^[6]
• The Purple House (Rigg Beck) was associated with poets like Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes.

See also

• Keskadale Beck

References

54.571°N -3.184°W

Notes and References

1. https://www.cwherald.com/a/archive/famous-purple-house-destroyed-in-mystery-blaze.311570.html Famous Purple House...
2. A Wainwright, The North-Western Fells (Kendall 1964) Ard Crags 3
3. A Wainwright, The North-Western Fells (Kendall 1964) Ard Crags 1 and Causey Pike 2
4. A Wainwright, The North-Western Fells (Kendall 1964) Causey Pike 2
5. A Wainwright, Wainwright in the Valleys of Lakeland (London 1996) p. 214
6. G Lindop, A Literary Guide to the Lake District (London 1993) p. 199