Geologists’ Association Guide No. 77 – Cumbria, compiled and edited by Richard Wrigley – Deposits

Jon Trevelyan (UK)

In some ways, this up to date information is strictly what I would like from a GA information – intensive protection, effectively written, and oodles of vibrant photographs and graphics. I preferred and used the earlier version (GA No. 2), and it’s a disgrace that, for instance, the Ordovician website of Stockdale Quarry has disappeared, but it surely – and little question different areas – has been changed by, what I believe, are simply pretty much as good, if not higher, websites.

The truth is, this new information to Cumbria expands the world coated by Information No. 2 effectively past the Lake District Nationwide Park, to incorporate the broader Cumbrian area. On this respect, the information is multi-authored and there are actually two separate volumes – the primary overlaying Cumberland, and the second, Westmorland and Furness.

And like all GA guides, every quantity incorporates an outline of the geology of the chosen area, along with the same old catalogue of itineraries exploring its stratigraphy, palaeontology and mineralisation. In particular, this guide covers the complex structure and sedimentology of the Ordovician, the Skiddaw Group in the Northern Fells, and the Holocene sediments of the Ravenglass Estuary (among many other things).

There are 23 itineraries in all, and a comprehensive bibliography, glossary and index in each volume, plus detailed introductions to the Palaeozoic rocks and Quaternary processes.

More particularly, the Volume 1 itineraries cover:

• Skiddaw Group structures and intrusions around Beek Wythop, Bassenthwaite.
• A short walk into a watery cataclysm: Sourmilk Gill in Seathwaite, Borrowdale.
• The Carboniferous, Asbian-Brigantian, Yoredale Cycle deposits in the Caldew Valley.
• The Early Carboniferous Leahill Cyclothem, Coombe Crag Gorge.
• Pennine Coal Measures Group and Warwickshire Group of the Whitehaven to Lowca area, West Cumbria.
• The Permian and Triassic Rocks of West Cumbria.
• Quaternary Landforms of Upper Borrowdale.
• Relict Rock Slope Failures in the Upper Buttermere Valley.
• Holocene features of the Ravenglass Estuary.
• The Building Stones of Keswick.
• Local Geological Sites in Cumbria.

And the Volume 2 itineraries cover:

• The margin of Langdale Caldera: volcanic rocks of Side Pike.
• The Langdale Caldera.
• The Windermere Supergroup in the SW Lake District.
• A Geological Cornucopia: a transect of the Dent Fault Zone at Taythes.
• The Windermere Supergroup in the Broughton in Furness and Gawthwaite area, south Cumbria.
• The Shap granite and its surroundings: a small granite with a big story.
• Trowbarrow Quarry: a late Asbian reference section of the South Cumbria-North Lancashire carbonate platform, and the ‘Silverdale Disturbance’.
• Westmorland Dales Upper Eden Valley-a classic Carboniferous area.
• Carboniferous Limestone of Kendal Fell.
• The Northern Pennine orefield: geology, mineralisation and landscape around Nenthead.
• The Permian Rocks of the Vale of Eden.
• The Building Stones of Kendal.

What is very new in this edition are the chapters on the building stones of Keswick and Kendal. This sort of geology is becoming increasingly common and popular in guides, and I must admit that rainy days in the Lakes could easily – and pleasantly – be filled by following the routes through the towns provided by the guides.

I actually read the two volumes cover to cover. (OK I am reviewing the guides, so I suppose I had to!) However, the point to note is that GA guides tend to be very good to dip in and out of to read about those specific areas you are interested in or planning to visit. But these volumes are good enough to read from beginning to end, especially if you (like me) are a lover of the Lake District.

I thoroughly recommend these volumes for anybody interested in geology and the Lake District, regardless of whether you are visiting or not.

Cumbria, Volume 1: Cumberland and Volume 2: Westmorland and Furness, GA guide No. 77, compiled and edited by Richard Wrigley, The Geologists’ Association (London), Vol. 1, 229 pages (paperback, ring bound), Vol. 2, 251 pages (paperback, ring bound), ISBN: 978-1999675745 and 978-1999675752