The North Pennines is a beautiful upland area in the north of England. It is a place of wild moors, remote fells, green dales and scattered settlements. Stretching across 2,000km2 of the counties of Durham, Northumberland and Cumbria, it is designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB).

Much of this landscape is made up of layers of fossil-rich limestone, shale and sandstone which formed between 350 and 300 million years ago when the North Pennines lay near the equator. Another special feature is the Whin Sill – the original sill of geological science. Once molten rock underground, it now stands out as dramatic dolerite or ‘whinstone’ cliffs and waterfalls.

The North Pennines is world-famous for its mineral veins which cut through the hills. Centuries of mining for lead ore and other minerals have left a legacy of settlements, shafts and spoil heaps, and a ‘miner-farmer’ landscape.

At the western edge of the North Pennines the landscape is very different. Slates and volcanic rocks, up to 480 million years old, are exposed in conical hills or ‘pikes’ which lie next to red sandstones which formed in deserts around 250 million years ago.

Glacial landforms and deposits from the last ice age, about 20,000 years ago also have a big impact on the landscape. Today the North Pennines is characterised by flat-topped hills, blanket peat bogs, rare flora and fauna and upland farming.