The Bottomless, Town-Swallowing, Goose-Plucking Lake Gormire

Yorkshire is a county of myths, one of which insists it possesses only a single lake — Gormire. This is clearly absurd, yet it may simply be Yorkshire’s way of keeping a straight face while mocking outsiders, or perhaps a petty attempt to match the Lake District, which, as every schoolboy is told, also has only one actual lake — Lake Bassenthwaite. By this peculiar logic, Seamer Water does not count, being, conveniently, a “water” rather than a “lake”.

Gormire Lake sits nestled at the foot of Whitestone Cliff in the Hambleton Hills. The National Park makes the most of it, for they are quite obviously pleased with having a lake — not just for its beauty but for the various legends that cling to it like mist.

The oldest of these stories dates to the twelfth century, when Gormire was handed to Newburgh Priory. It claims that an entire town lies drowned at its bottom, occasionally visible in the water’s depths, though the tale never troubles itself to say when. Equally implausible is the claim that the lake is bottomless, which makes one wonder where, exactly, this phantom town is supposed to rest¹LAKE GORMIRE — Beauty Spot of the North Riding. Newcastle Chronicle – 21 December 1940. https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000865/19401221/165/0007.

Another, more florid tale insists there was once a castle here, home to a doughty knight and a strikingly fair lady. The knight, plagued by jealousy, murdered her, hid the body, and was immediately punished when a flood surged from the Hambleton Hills, swallowing castle, grounds, and knight alike. Maybe along with the town.

Then there is the more practical mystery: how the lake keeps its water level steady despite having no visible inlet or outlet. The rain is one explanation, hidden springs another, but the real entertainment comes from local tradition. This insists the water slips away under Whitestone Cliff and tells of a goose that ventured into a gully only to emerge, ten miles later near Kirkbymoorside, quite dead and entirely without feathers. The modern explanation is less theatrical: an underground spring feeds the lake, and a limestone channel drains it through the base of the cliff. Which, of course, is far too dull to become legend.

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  LAKE GORMIRE — Beauty Spot of the North Riding. Newcastle Chronicle – 21 December 1940. https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000865/19401221/165/0007