SEVEN WONDERS
The Seven Natural Wonders of the UK have been selected by experts at the Royal Geographical Society, for their shared beauty, uniqueness and geological significance. Four of them are in classic hillwalking areas but only 10% of UK adults had heard of all seven. Which have you visited?
■ WAST WATER, LAKE DISTRICT
Situated in one of the wildest Lake District valleys, home to England’s highest mountain and deepest lake, glaciers carved out this huge U-shaped hollow in volcanic rock about 10,000 years ago towards the end of the last Ice Age.
■ LOCH CORUISK & THE CUILLINS, SKYE
Loch Coruisk, meaning ‘Cauldron of Waters’ in Scottish Gaelic, is an inland freshwater loch situated in the heart of the formidable Black Cuillin mountains and is surrounded on three sides by imposing volcanic cliffs.
■ DOVEDALE, PEAK DISTRICT
The limestone rock of Dovedale consists of the fossilised remains of marine life from when the area was underneath a shallow tropical sea 350 million years ago. Vast quantities of meltwater cut through the limestone leaving rock formations.
■ PISTYLL RHAEADR WATERFALL, NORTH WALES
At 240ft tall this is one of Britain’s highest waterfalls. Situated just inside the Welsh border the waterfall is formed from streams originating in the Berwyn mountains, falling in three magnificent stages.
■ JURASSIC COAST, DORSET
A 95-mile stretch of glorious coastline that provides an almost continuous sequence of rock formations covering 185 million years of geological history, and is internationally renowned for its contribution to earth sciences.
■ GIANT’S CAUSEWAY, NORTHERN IRELAND
The extraordinary geological features on the Antrim Coast were formed around 50-60 million years ago, when successive lava flows cooled rapidly as they met with the sea to form thousands of polygonal basalt columns.
■ THE NEEDLES, ISLE OF WIGHT
The Needles form the western tip of a backbone of hardened chalk that crosses the centre of the Isle of Wight, with three distinctive, jagged, chalk stacks that extend into the sea. A fourth and taller needle collapsed during a storm in 1764.