Author: Herbert and Mary Jackson
Book Title: Ghoulish Horrible Hair raising Cumbrian Tales

Talkin tarn is a small but lovely lake covering sixty acres. It is situated only a short distance from Brampton, an old English Town where Bonnie Prince Charlie was pleased to make his headquarters while he awaited an onslaught by the Royal forces from Newcastle.

The natives of the village of Talkin tarn still believe the tarn is bottomless. The legend according to an old poem tells how the original village was destroyed by an earthquake.

One day an old man walked into Brampton in a distressed and tired state. He had come far and was sure he would receive food and rest from the hospitable Cumbrians. But the people of Brampton at that time were known to be of a both cruel and selfish nature. They ignored the old man's pleas for food and shelter and turned their dogs on him.

The old vagrant staggered to the centre of the village and dropped down on his knees and appealed to the Almighty to punish the people of Brampton for their selfishness. Then he staggered on towards the City of Carlisle.

Within a short time his prayer was answered, for the heavens opened with torrents of rain, a tremendous earthquake took place and houses disappeared into the bowels of the earth.

And in the morning, where the village of Brampton stood, was a still, deep and mysterious lake.

I have heard it said that by taking a boat into the centre of the tarn one can look down and see ruins of old buildings, which rather contradicts the idea that the tarn is bottomless. Peter Burn, a Brampton poet of the last century, described the tragic end of the original village in his poem:

God in the stillness of the night,
So I've heard old people say,
An earthquake sent unto this place,
And move the whole away.
Where stood the village spoken of,
Now a grassy lake is seen,
No sign is left to indicate,
There houses once have been.
Ye Cumbrians! Oft repeat it,
Let your sons this legend know;
They may kearn anon the lesson -
Sin does not unpunish go.

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