‘How has the Lake District been shaped over time?’

From a young age I have been fascinated by the history of the landscape. Family holidays in the Lake District offered early encounters with the past that did not come mediated through textbooks, but through place. Driving over Dunmail Raise, my father would point out that the ancient ruler, Dunmail (who was slain by Saxons), was buried under the cairn we drove past. Walks alongside Derwentwater yielded fossil fragments that hinted at deep time, and the paths that we trod wound around slate quarries still active today. These experiences suggested that the landscape was historical – shaped, used and contested over long periods of time...