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Dock Tarn

lake in the United Kingdom

Architectural plans, a scale model, maps and brass measuring instruments
Places and architectureInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 25, 2026
Entity authorityQ5287202
Source-derived summary

Dock Tarn is a small tarn located within the Lake District National Park in Cumbria, England, at grid reference NY273143. It is situated on moorland at 400 metres above sea level near the summit of Great Crag, midway between Watendlath, the Stonethwaite valley and Borrowdale. It measures approximately 300 by 200 metres, and the shoreline is indented with rocky headlands and bays. There is a tiny island in the tarn with a few small Rowan trees growing on it. Many Lake District writers rate Dock Tarn and the walk to it very highly because of its quiet beauty.

The tarn can be reached from Watendlath by a 2.5 kilometre walk along a path that climbs very close to the summit of Great Crag; many walkers include the ascent of this fell in the outing. The approach from Stonethwaite is of a similar distance but is more arduous, going steeply through the deciduous woodland in the valley before following the stream of Willygrass Gill, which is the outflow of Dock Tarn.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Dock Tarn” is lake in the United Kingdom. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Dock, Tarn and lake, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewMost useful as a place-based finding aid connecting the present description to earlier jurisdictions, maps and built evidence. The current 170-word lead offers orientation but no explicit four-digit date, so chronology should not be assumed. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, Dock, Tarn and lake is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “lake in the United Kingdom” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Place names and jurisdictional language are key evidence: both can reveal earlier catalogue descriptions and overlooked record series. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 25, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5287202. Authority coordinates are 54.519, -3.125. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.

Critical limits

Architectural summaries often privilege surviving fabric and can understate demolished phases, contested use or displaced communities. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.

Best used for
  • Historic place names
  • Jurisdictional context
  • Routes into maps and plans
Verify next

Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Dock Tarn”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Dock Tarn primary sources, Dock Tarn archive and Dock research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Dock Tarn”?
  2. Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
  3. What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Dock Tarn” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.