Tarn Hows — Watercolour Map Poster

£129.99 GBP

Sale Sold out

Taxes included. Shipping calculated at checkout.

Size 50x70cm 45x60cm 30x40cm

Frame Black White Natural

Three sizes
Framed, ready to hang
Made to order

Set in the undulating country near Hawkshead, Tarn Hows is a celebrated Lake District water cupped between Holme Fell and Black Fell. This gentle tarn stretches about 1.0 km along the water, resting 187 m above sea level.

On the sheet, the tarn's pinched and irregular shoreline is painted in a deep blue watercolour wash with darker, dried edges. Fine grey lines map the real contours of the ground, clustering gently where the land rises and widening across softer slopes. Drawn from surveyed shoreline and contour data, the true shape of the water is instantly recognisable from across the room.

Arriving framed and ready to hang, this piece looks striking on a stairwell or bringing focus to a boot room. A natural wood frame warms the crisp paper, while black offers a sharper cartographic contrast. It belongs to a wider series of Lakeland prints, designed to hang beautifully in twos or threes.

Nearby

Sizes

30 × 40 cm — 12 × 16 in

45 × 60 cm — 18 × 24 in

50 × 70 cm — 20 × 28 in

Each size is the printed sheet itself; the 20 mm moulding sits outside it. There is no mount — the sheet runs to the frame, so the whole map is on show.

Paper, frame and glazing

Printed on 200 gsm enhanced matte fine-art paper — no gloss, no reflections, and ink that sits in the sheet rather than on it, so the watercolour reads as watercolour.

Framed in a 20 mm wide, 24 mm deep solid wood moulding — black, white or natural oak.

Glazed with shatterproof acrylic rather than glass, so a large sheet arrives intact.

MDF backing board with hanging fixtures already fitted.

How the map is drawn

The shoreline is the surveyed shoreline of the lake, and the contour lines are the real contours of the ground around it, measured by airborne laser survey. The lake is turned to stand on its long axis so it fills the sheet, then finished in watercolour: a deep blue wash for the water, fine grey ink for the contours, on a paper ground.

Nothing is added — no roads, no labels, no compass. If you know the lake, you will know it at once.

Delivery and returns

Every poster is printed and framed to order, at the production facility closest to your delivery address.

Framed pieces are made and dispatched within 5–10 working days. UK delivery normally takes up to five working days after dispatch; international orders can take up to 28 days.

Full detail is in our shipping policy and refund policy.

View full details

Tarn Hows map poster close-up: the watercolour lake and the pen-drawn contour lines

Drawn from the lake itself

This is not an impression of the lake. It is the lake: its surveyed shoreline, and the real shape of the fells that hold it, painted by hand.

The true shoreline

Every bay, spit and island is where it really is. The outline is taken from the surveyed shoreline, not sketched from memory.

Real contours

The lines are the actual contours of the ground, measured by airborne laser survey. Where they crowd together, the fell is steep. Where they open out, the valley floor is flat.

Finished in watercolour

The water is a deep blue wash with the darker edge a wash leaves as it dries; the contours are drawn in fine grey ink on a paper ground. Printed on 200gsm matte fine-art paper so it looks like paper, not a photograph of one.