Great Langdale seen descending Loft Crag... guess – to our minds, anyway – it’s pretty obvious why stone taken from here was so highly prized. I’ve also attempted to indicate the location of the famous Copt Howe rock art...
31/12/05. Loft Crag from Pike of Stickle summit. A cold day, in spite of the thaw. The Loft Crag site lies just over its summit. There’s not much to see, just a load of interesting, sharp greenstone flakes. They stand out against the natural rock shell, so anyone who knows what they’re looking for will see them. I left the place as I found it, moving and taking nothing. Please leave it as you find it.
After coming here all my life I still find it an awe-inspiring place.
31/12/05 Loft Crag flakes, with sharp edges, eroding out of the peat.
The last day of the year, and a raw day at that. You can see where the rocks were worked, and here, where the peat had been eroded away, the evidence of the working of the greenstone can be seen as clean flake chips. No one I’ve ever seen here gives them a second look. I left everything in place.
This place is fragile, please tread carefully, and leave everything as you find it.
31/12/05. Loft Crag stone axe factory: the evidence. Greenstone flakes, with sharp edges, on a thawing, but raw, day. By the way, I left everything untouched. The last site of 2005 for me, visited yet again. This place is fragile, please tread carefully, and leave everything as you found it.
Lying between the Thorn Crag and Pike of Stickle stone axe factory sites, this site, one of many on Loft Crag, has been unearthed by the passage of feet on the popular Langdale Pikes. As well as many greenstone flakes and chips on the path and scree, there are also flakes and chips sticking out of the peat that has been eroded by walkers.
This is just part of a huge complex in Great Langdale.
