introduction to langdale...

The scene is of white-washed farmhouses nestling at the foot of the fells, valley fields surrounded by dry stone walls, pockets of coppice woodland, and Herdwick sheep contentedly grazing on the lush pastures.

Centuries before, the volcanic rocks of the Langdale Pikes were highly prized by Neolithic people for making tools, and high on the slopes is probably Europe's largest Stone Age axe factory - the debris-strewn screes almost entirely composed of discarded chippings.

At the entrance to Great Langdale are the green-slate villages of Chapel Stile and Elterwater. Both villages developed on the back of gunpowder manufacture and slate extraction. Nowadays, Elterwater exudes the charm of a typical English rural village with a picturesque country inn overlooking an attractive green.