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Rydal Water by Frank Patterson, reproduced with the kind permission of the CTC, the national cycling charity, www.ctc.org.uk

Geology and landscape

The height of the Lake District fells has not much to do with the hardness of their rock, which is little different to that of the surrounding countryside, but to a raft of hard granite below, which occasionally breaks through at Eskdale, Ennerdale, Skiddaw and Shap. The top tier above this granite layer is made up of three broad bands of rock running from the southwest to the northeast.

In the north is the Skiddaw Group made up of the oldest rocks in the region formed through sedimentary action about 500 million years ago. Although they look like slate, they are friable and easily eroded, forming the rounded hills of the Northern Fells. South of this is the Borrowdale Volcanic Group made up of lavas and ash flows that erupted during a period of volcanic activity 450 million years ago. The highest and craggiest parts of the Lake District that are the most popular with walkers and climbers, such as Scafell (964m), Scafell Pike (978m), Helvellyn (950m), Coniston Old Man (803m) and the Langdale Pikes (736m), are all formed from the harder rocks of the Borrowdale Volcanic Group. Further south again is another zone of sedimentary slates, siltstones and sandstones known as the Windermere Group, which were formed during the Silurian period about 420 million years ago. Again being far less resistant to erosion, they form the rounded hills that stretch all the way from the Duddon estuary across to Kendal giving the southern part of the Lake District a more pastoral feel.