Rigg Beck

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