Great Langdale

Great Langdale is the name of a valley in the Lake District National park in Cumbria, in the northwest of England. It is often simply known as Langdale, the epithet Great serving to distinguish it from the neighbouring valley of Little Langdale.

Langdale is a popular location for hikers, climbers, fell-runners and other outdoor enthusiasts, who are drawn there by the many fells that ring the head of the valley. England's tallest mountain, Scafell Pike, can be climbed by a route from Langdale. It has panoramic views, in particular, Dungeon Ghyll Force waterfall, Harrison Stickle and Pike of Stickle.

The valley mouth is located at Skelwith Bridge, which lies about 2 miles west of Ambleside. The Langdale valley is setting to two villages; Chapelstile and Elterwater and also a hamlet at Highclose.

It is a U-shaped valley produced by glaciers while Little Langdale is a hanging valley. One of the best known features of Great Langdale are the Langdale Pikes, a group of peaks lying on the northerrn side of the dale. Looking up they appear as a sharp rocky ridge, though they are only precipitous on their southern side: to the north the land sweeps gently to High Raise, the parent peak of the range. The Pikes include, from west to east, Pike of Stickle, Loft Crag, Harrison Stickle, and Pavey Ark.

Langdales tallest fell is Bowfell, other notable fells are crinkle crags at the head of the Oxendale vallay and Pike O'Blisco.

Langdale is well known to archaeologists as the source of particular types of Neolithic polished stone axe heads, created on the slopes of Pike of Stickle, and traded all over prehistoric Great Britain and Europe. It also was the source of stone for some Bronze Age items such as stone wrist-guards.

Neolithic cup and ring marks can be found on the Langdale Boulders.
The remains of Hardknot Pass Fort, a roman fort can be seen at the top of Hardknot pass. The roman name for the fortress was Mediobogdum.

Langdale and Elterwater were main centres of the Lake District slate industry. Two slate quarries have been more or less continually working using modern methods, which are: Elterwater Quarry, and Spout Cragg Quarry. Elterwater is the larger of the two, and 'like Spout Cragg is operated by Burlington Stone. The are various disused quarries in the area such as: Lingmoor, Banks, Thrang Crag and Colt Howe.

Langdale also happens to be the name of a valley in the Howgill Fells, elsewhere in Cumbria.
Langdale Leisure Limited thrives in the valley. It consists of a hotel, timeshare lodges and various leisure facilities.

Reference: Wikipedia - under the GNU Free Doc Licence