The story of Cumbria, set in stone
Last updated 13:38, Thursday, 17 April 2008
There is everything to be said for beginning a story at the very beginning and this enterprising book does just that. “The story of Cumbria begins,” we are told in the opening sentence, “about 480 million years ago in the Ordovician Period near a small continent called Avalonia, which lay in high latitudes in the southern hemisphere.” There was little if any vegetable life on the land. The rocks eroded rapidly in the periodic storms that carried sediments into the ocean to the north. These sediments built up to a great thickness. They eventually lithified, or turned into stone, and during eons of geological time, when vast continents inched their ways to inevitable and monumental collisions, these layers of mud were shifted, pushed and shaped to become the familiar forms we know today as Skiddaw and Blencathra.
Exploring Lakeland Rocks and Landscapes edited by Susan Beale and Mervyn Dodd. The Cumberland Geological Society £9.50
So, for instance, if you park your car at Stone End Farm and make the 420-metre steep climb to the summit of Carrock Fell, you are walking on rocks that were formed deep in the earth as the molten magma cooled in a vast chamber beneath the earth’s crust.
This harder rock remained as the layers above were eroded and today it stands proud as the height of Carrock Fell.
If you look closely at the rocks on the way up you can distinguish the speckled surface of gabbro with its large black and white crystals. When you reach the top you will find boulders of gabbro even though the summit itself is made of granophyre. These boulders were carried upwards by the ice-sheets.
Further along the walk, after crossing the ford and walking downstream into a small gorge, “between gorse bushes you may be able to see the dark grey, fine-grained bedrock. It is an andesite, part of the Eycott Volcanic Formation and was formed from runny lava which erupted, perhaps from a fissure, to cool very quickly. The andesite resists erosion better than the unconsolidated glacial till, so the beck is cutting a gorge here.”
This is a book written by enthusiasts to make other people equally enthusiastic.
The rocks are pointed out, explained – there’s a glossary to help with the essential technical terms – and the slow dramatic events of millions of year ago are brought alive.
Seventeen walks are described by 17 different people. Each of them seems to know every rock on their chosen route. Margaret Bennett will guide you through the landscape around Keswick; Gordon Taylor knows the Eden Valley and Mervyn Dodd explores the cycleway at Frizington.
There is a sketch map for each walk showing the geological features and key locations. Photographs and sketches explain the detail. You might look for the folding in hornfelsed greywracke which you can see on the Glenderaterra Valley walk.
This book should add a new dimension to favourite walks. You will see the old familiar landscape with fresh eyes.
Exploring Lakeland Rocks and Landscapes is available from Bookends, 56 Castle Street, Carlisle, and 66 Main Street, Keswick, and from www.bookscumbria.com
