THE STORY OF LAKELAND
For many, it is the classic view of the Lake District: a narrow road winding through Great Langdale’s glacial valley, white-painted cottages with slate roofs and sheep grazing in beck-side fields. Ahead, the soft blue outline of Crinkle Crags; to the right, the craggy peaks of the Langdale Pikes. John Ruskin described this valley as “the loveliest rock scenery, chased with silver waterfalls, that I ever set foot or heart upon”.
The Lake District is a landscape formed by geology, altered by human occupation, and Great Langdale is a microcosm of this multi-layered history. High up above the precipitous scree slopes of Pike O’Stickle is a Neolithic stone axe factory where greenstone, a hard volcanic rock, was quarried. In a field close to the road is an example of prehistoric rock art. Concentric rings and cup marks are carved across the face of a huge boulder, one of a pair known to climbers as the Langdale
