Hollows Farm Section

Also within

Cumbria County LAKE DISTRICT National Park

Condition (Natural England)

Geology & landscape

Landscape processes: Volcanic / Igneous

Description

Area, 2.4 hectares 5.9 ac Description Hollows Farm Section lies one kilometre south of Grange in Borrowdale and 13 kilometres south of Keswick. The site is a famous geological locality providing important exposures of the junction of the Skiddaw Group and the Borrowdale Volcanic Group, the two main rock groups of the Lake District. This junction has been made the subject of controversy for many years and has become one of the central issues of Lake District geology. The understanding of the nature of this junction is of great importance in unravelling the complex structural evolution of the region and particularly in dating the main phases of folding and cleavage formation. A number of small outcrops in Scarbrow Wood demonstrate both slates of the Skiddaw Group and overlying tuffs of the Borrowdale Volcanic Group as well as the junction of the two groups. Detailed study of these outcrops has shown that a single set of cleavage surfaces pass undisturbed from slates totuffs. Furthermore this cleavage is itself deformed by later folds and a weak associated second generation cleavage. This evidence proves that both of these rock groups share the same main, regional cleavage, hence resolving a long running controversy. This is a critical geological locality providing important evidence of the structural evolution of this region.