Bassenthwaite Lake Bassenthwaite Lake Bassenthwaite Lake is one of the largest water bodies in the English Lake District. It is long and narrow, approximately long and wide, but is also extremely shallow, with a maximum depth of about . It is the only body of water in the Lake District to use the word ""lake"" in its name, all the others being ""waters"" (for example, Derwentwater), ""meres"" (for example, Windermere) or ""tarns"" (for example, Dock Tarn). It is fed by, and drains into, the River Derwent. The lake lies at the foot of Skiddaw, near the town of Keswick. Some maps dating
Lake District gales on an average of only five days a year, the Lake District is generally very windy with the coastal areas having 20 days of gales, and the fell tops around 100 days of gales per year. The maritime climate means that the Lake District experiences relatively moderate temperature variations through the year. Mean temperature in the valleys ranges from about in January to around in July. (By comparison, Moscow, at the same latitude, ranges from .) The relatively low height of most of the fells means that, while snow is expected during the winter, they can be free of