Skiddaw Slates in the foreground, Skiddaw itself behind. These mudstones have been squashed, folded, raised upwards and compressed into slate by the collision of Scotland with England in the Ordovician and Silurian Periods. They originally lay on the floor of the ocean between the two bits of converging continent. Skiddaw Slates are rather less robust than the volcanic rocks of the main part of Lakeland to their south, and form smooth, steep-sided mountains such as Skiddaw itself.

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