The UK Landscape Map

One line across Britain

Take a map of Great Britain and rule a line from the mouth of the River Tees in the north-east to the mouth of the River Exe in the south-west. It is a crude device and geographers use it anyway, because almost everything about the physical landscape changes as you cross it. To the north and west the rock is old and hard. The Lewisian gneiss of north-west Scotland is around 3 billion years old, among the most ancient in Europe, and the igneous and metamorphic rocks of the Highlands, the Lake District and Snowdonia have resisted erosion for a very long time. These uplands were also the ground the ice sheets sat on most heavily during the last glaciation, which sharpened them further. Ben Nevis reaches 1,345 m, Snowdon 1,085 m and Scafell Pike 978 m, and the Pennines, the so-called backbone of England, run roughly 400 km from the Scottish border down to the Peak District. To the south and east the rock is younger and softer, mostly sedimentary chalk, clay and sandstone laid down long after the Highlands had formed. The land is lower and flatter, with wide river valleys and broad plains, and parts of the Fens in East Anglia lie below sea level and are kept dry by pumping. The two longest rivers, the Severn at 354 km and the Thames at 346 km, both rise in the west and flow across this softer ground. This is a small topic that earns its place by making the rest of the course locatable. When a question names the Holderness coast, the River Tees or a glaciated valley in the Lake District, knowing roughly where each sits on this map is the difference between a case study and a list of words.

Five terms for reading the landscape

Each is defined so that you could use it about an unfamiliar map, since that is what the skills questions actually ask you to do.

Order them by height

These six summits are the highest points of well-known upland areas. Put them in order, tallest first.

• Ben Nevis, in the Grampian mountains of Scotland, at 1,345 m
• Snowdon, the highest point in Wales, at 1,085 m
• Scafell Pike, the highest point in England, at 978 m
• Cross Fell, the highest point of the Pennines, at 893 m
• Slieve Donard, the highest point in Northern Ireland, at 850 m
• High Willhays, the highest point on Dartmoor, at 621 m

Why are the uplands where they are?

Upland Britain lies overwhelmingly to the north and west. Which answer explains that pattern?

• Two things working together. The rock there is far older and more resistant, including igneous and metamorphic rock such as the gneiss of north-west Scotland at around 3 billion years, so it has survived erosion that removed softer material elsewhere, while the south and east are built on much younger sedimentary chalk, clay and sandstone that wears away readily. On top of that, the north and west bore the heaviest ice during the last glaciation, which deepened the valleys and sharpened the peaks rather than levelling them.
• The north and west receive more rainfall, which has built the land up over time.
• The uplands are still being pushed up by plate movement at a British plate margin.
• The south and east were levelled by centuries of farming and building.

Two Britains

Read the rows across. The same four questions, asked of each half of the country, produce the pattern the whole of this part of the specification sits on.

Label the relief map

The map shows the UK with shading for height: the darker the ground, the higher it is. Tap a label, then tap the pin it belongs to. Two of the labels name real UK features that this map does not mark.

Match each place to the course

Reading a map you have never seen

The specification note calls this a light overview topic, to be known well enough to locate named features on a UK map. That is a fair description, and it also understates how often the skill is used, because the map questions on this paper hand you an extract of somewhere unfamiliar and expect you to describe what is there. Work in the same order every time. Height first. Read the contours or the shading and say whether the ground is high or low, then whether it is steep or gentle, because those are two different things and the second is often what the question is really after. Then shape. Narrow steep-sided valleys, broad flat floors, ridges, rounded summits: name what you see rather than reaching for a landform you half remember. Then the water. Where does the drainage run, and is it cutting down through the ground or wandering across it? When a question asks you to describe a distribution, resist explaining it. Give the pattern, use compass directions, and quote the evidence in front of you: something is concentrated in the north and west, thins towards the south and east, with an outlier in the far south-west. Naming that outlier is usually worth a mark on its own, because it shows you looked rather than recited. And use this map to anchor everything else. When you write about a retreating clay cliff, a river rising on a high moor or a valley cut by ice, saying which part of the country it is in costs four words and turns a general answer into a located one.

Complete the UK landscape facts

A rough line drawn from the mouth of the Tees to the mouth of the _____ separates the higher, older ground of the north and west from the lower, younger ground of the south and east. The highest summit in the United Kingdom is Ben Nevis at _____ m, while Scafell Pike at 978 m is the highest in England. The range known as the backbone of England is the _____, running roughly 400 km from the Scottish border to the Peak District. The longest river in the country is the _____ at 354 km. In the east of the lowlands, parts of the Fens lie below _____ level and remain usable only because the water is pumped away.

Spot the three accurate UK claims

Select the THREE statements that are true.

• Dartmoor is an upland lying well to the south and west of the usual dividing line, which is a useful reminder that the line is a teaching device rather than a real boundary.
• The difference in relief across the country reflects the age and resistance of the rock, with ancient igneous and metamorphic rock in the north and west and much younger sedimentary rock in the south and east.
• Parts of the Fens lie below sea level and remain farmland only because water is pumped off them continuously.
• British mountains are high because plate movement is still pushing them upwards.
• The Thames is the longest river in the United Kingdom.
• The flattest and lowest ground in the UK lies in the north and west.

A 6-mark distribution answer, marked

Describe the distribution of upland areas in the United Kingdom. [6 marks] Upland areas are concentrated in the north and west of the United Kingdom. The highest and most extensive lie in Scotland, where the Grampian mountains include Ben Nevis at 1,345 m, and the high ground continues southwards through the Southern Uplands towards the border. In northern England the uplands form two distinct areas: the Pennines, a long north to south range running roughly 400 km from the Scottish border down to the Peak District, and the Lake District to the west of them, where Scafell Pike reaches 978 m. Wales is largely upland, with Snowdonia in the north rising to 1,085 m at Snowdon and the Cambrian Mountains extending through the centre of the country. Northern Ireland has upland in the Mourne Mountains, where Slieve Donard reaches 850 m. The pattern is therefore broadly north-westerly, and it is often summarised by a line drawn between the mouths of the Tees and the Exe, with most upland lying to the north and west of it. There is, however, a clear exception in the far south-west, where Dartmoor and Exmoor rise well to the south of that line, with High Willhays reaching 621 m on Dartmoor. What earned the marks: a clear overall pattern stated at the start; named areas across all four countries rather than England alone; heights quoted as supporting evidence; compass directions used throughout; and the exception identified at the end, which is usually worth a mark in itself. Note that the answer describes and never explains, because the command word was "describe".

Find the two describing statements

Five sentences about the distribution of UK uplands. Three of them explain why the pattern exists. Tap the TWO that describe the pattern, which is what a "describe" question actually wants.

• Upland areas are concentrated in the north and west, with the most extensive lying in Scotland and further high ground running south through northern England and Wales.
• The rock in those areas is older and more resistant, so it has survived erosion that removed softer material elsewhere.
• There is an exception in the far south-west, where Dartmoor and Exmoor rise well beyond the usual dividing line.
• The last glaciation bore down hardest on the north and west, deepening the valleys there.
• The south and east are built on younger sedimentary rock, which wears away far more readily.

Build the distribution sentence

Assemble an opening sentence for a distribution answer that states a pattern and keeps its exception.

Four map extracts

You are handed an unfamiliar map extract in each case. Read it before you name anything.

• The contour lines on the extract are packed tightly together along a narrow strip, and widely spaced on either side of it.
• A four-mark question asks you to describe the distribution of woodland on the extract. You can see it clustered on the steeper western slopes and almost absent from the flat eastern half, with one isolated patch in the far south.
• You are writing about a coastline retreating at nearly two metres a year on soft glacial clay, and you want the examiner to see you know where it is.
• An extract shows several rivers all rising on high ground towards the west of the sheet and flowing east across progressively flatter country.

Describe and explain the pattern

Describe the distribution of upland and lowland areas in the UK, and explain why they lie where they do. [9 marks]

• Describe first: give the overall pattern with compass directions and name upland areas across Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland
• Quote heights as evidence, and name at least one lowland area as well
• Include the exception in the far south-west, since noticing it shows you read the map rather than recited the rule
• Then explain, starting with rock age and resistance and moving to the effect of glaciation on the north and west
• Keep the two halves separate, so it is obvious to the examiner where the description ends and the explanation begins