Exploring the UK's lakes

A lake is a body of water surrounded by land, sometimes with a river flowing into or out of it. Lakes can be found in every country of the UK.

Lakes:

• have different sizes and depths

• are natural or man-made

• contain saltwater or freshwater

• disappear over time as they fill with sediment

• are used by animals

• provide water, food and a way of travelling for people

• if formed by dams, can be used to make electricity

The water in lakes can come from:

• rain

• snow

• melting ice

• groundwater seepage

• streams and rivers

• the sea - saltwater lakes

Lakes have different names in each country of the UK:

• In Scotland they are called lochs.
• In Northern Ireland they are called loughs.
• In Wales they are known as llyns.
• In England they are known as lakes.

In the UK, there are many lakes. Some of them are natural lakes, while others are man-made.

The largest freshwater lake in the UK by area is Lough Neagh in Northern Ireland. The deepest freshwater lake in the UK is Loch Morar in Scotland.

The Lake District in England is well known for its many lakes, mountains, valleys, and bogs.

Tarns

When small glaciers form in hollows on the sides of mountains they make the hollows deeper by eroding them until a basin is created. The basins are called corries and are usually surrounded by hillier areas on three sides with a lower area on one side where the water flows out. These are known as tarns.

Ribbon lakes

Glaciers flowed along river valleys and widened them into U-shaped valleys. This carved out long valleys through the softer rock, and the basins filled with water. These lakes are called ribbon lakes. Pieces of rock, called moraine, are left behind which can create a dam.

Rift/tectonic lakes

The Earth’s crust is divided into pieces called tectonic plates. Where the crust is broken, it can create deep cracks called faults. Faults can fill with rainwater or water from a stream.

If this break happens near the ocean, part of the water can be trapped by a part of the crust, forming a saltwater lake.

Artificial lakes

When a dam is built on a river, it blocks its stream and creates an artificial lake. It can be used as a reservoir to store water for people. Ladybower Reservoir is an example of an artificial lake that was made by flooding a river valley. The villages in the valley were lost to flooding.

Lakes are home to a wide variety of plants and animals; some birds only visit the lakes to breed or during migration.

Many small animals, such as dragonflies, snails, crayfish and frogs lay their eggs on the plants around lakes.

Turtles and a variety of bugs and beetles can be found in lakes.

Some of the more common plants around lakes are mosses, reeds and ferns. Floating plants such as waterlilies grow in the lakes.

Two of the most famous lakes in the UK are Windermere in the Lake District and Loch Ness in Scotland.

Lake Windermere is a ribbon lake, formed in a valley carved out by a glacier. It is the largest lake in England, 17 km long and 1.6 km wide.

Loch Ness is a lake in the Scottish Highlands and similarly to Windermere, it sits in a valley carved out by glaciers.

It has formed above the Great Glen fault, where two pieces of the Earth’s crust, called tectonic plates, moved past each other.

With a length of 37km and the deepest point of 230m, it contains the most freshwater in the British Isles.