Cumbria Rocks 60 Extraordinary Rocky Places That Tell the Story of the Cumbrian Landscape

About this book

To celebrate its 60th anniversary, Cumbria Wildlife Trust has published this new, richly illustrated book that reveals the incredible story of the Cumbrian landscape through 60 special places and connects its rocks to wildlife, history, economy and culture. The book will help you see Cumbria with new eyes and encourage you to explore the whole county and its diverse and beautiful places, and understand why they are as they are.

Pull on your boots and climb over remnants of old volcanoes and deep oceans, experience the power of ancient earthquakes, walk over a crag that was once a coral sea, witness the awesome force of the last Ice Age or simply wonder at the ingenuity of our ancestors who used these rocks in so many ways to create our shared heritage.

Using the latest research and scientifically accurate information, Cumbria Rocks also explains why geology is relevant to our lives today, whether that be the disposal of radioactive and toxic waste or climate change and future flood risk. It chronicles the role that rocks have played in building our heritage and culture from mining and building stones to poetry and art.

Through rich and relevant photography and straightforward, understandable, explanations it reveals how the amazing diversity of the landscape of Cumbria has come to be. You will never look at your landscape in the same way again.

Published by Northern Heritage Services in partnership with Cumbria Wildlife Trust.

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Biography

Ian Jackson was born and raised in Carlisle. His love of rocks began in the late 1950s in the Caldbeck Fells and valleys around Martindale. He has a degree in geology and geography from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne and is a Chartered Geologist and Fellow of the Geological Society. He spent 18 years surveying the geology of parts of the north of England, including Cumbria, for the British Geological Survey. Later he was responsible for national and international programmes that produced the first UK, European and global digital geological maps and made them web-accessible. He hikes in Cumbria and Northumberland every week. In addition to many scientific maps, articles and reports, he is the author of Britain Beneath Our Feet, an atlas of the UK’s geology, and Northumberland Rocks, a sister publication to this book.

Cumbria Wildlife Trust is a charity dedicated to safeguarding the wildlife and wild places of Cumbria - and helping people to get closer to nature.  The Trust aims to bring wildlife back to the county, to help empower people to take meaningful action for nature, and to create an inclusive society where nature matters. The Trust manages more than 40 nature reserves across 10,000 acres.  We work in partnership with local communities and others to help address the twin crises of biodiversity loss and climate change in Cumbria. We are one of 46 Wildlife Trusts, a grassroots movement working across the UK to make life better – for wildlife, for people and for future generations. Our vision is of a thriving natural world, with our wildlife and natural habitats playing a valued role in addressing the climate and ecological emergencies, and everyone inspired to get involved in nature’s recovery.