Physical structure and relief

Britain has different physical characteristics and despite its small area, contains rocks of nearly all the main geological periods. There is a contrast between the highlands of western and northern Britain and the lowland areas of the south and east.

You will not find very high mountains or large plains here. Everything occupies little place. (Nature, it seems, has carefully adapted things-mountains, valleys, plains, rivers and lakes-to the size of the island itself.)

The highest mountain in the British Isles is Ben Nevis in Scotland, 1.347 meters high. The longest river is the Severn in England, 390 km long. The largest lake in Great Britain is Loch Lomond in Scotland, covering a surface area of 70 sq. kilometers.

England. Though England cannot be considered as a very hilly country still it far from being flat everywhere. The most important range of mountains is the Pennine range. Some rivers flowing from the central Pennines have cut long open valleys, (known as dales which attract tourist because of their picturesque scenery.) Rainfall in the Pennines is heavy and their flowing streams provide power for woolen mills. Today the area is used for water storage; reservoirs in the uplands supply water to the industrial towns on each side of the Pennines.

Across the north end of the Pennine Range there are the grassy Cheviot Hills. They serve as a natural borderland between England and Scotland.

The valleys, which separate the various mountains from each other, contain some beautiful lakes. This is so-called Lake District. They are Windermere, Crasmere, Coniston Water, Ennerdale water, Ullswater, Hawswater. This is the celebrated Lake District, where many tourists resort every year and where the famous poets Wordsworth, Coleridge, Quincy lived and wrote.

In north-west England, separated from the Pennine by the valley of the river Eden lie the Cumbrian Mountains. These mountains form a ring round the peak of Helvellyn (950).Other peaks Scafell (978 m) and Skiddaw (931 m)

Thirlmere and News Water are in use as reservoirs for the Manchester area and permission has been granted for Manchester to take water from Ullswater and Windermere.

The region is scarcely populated and sheep rearing is the main occupation of the farmers. A typical farmhouse is built of stone, quarried locally, and roofed with slate, also obtained in the region. Around it are a number of small fields, separated from one another by dry stone walls.

The south-west region is essentially agricultural area. The areas of best soil occur around the southern borders of Dart moor, in northern Devon and Vale of Taunton. On the lower land between the moors, both in Cornwall and Devon are fertile river valleys.

The south-west Peninsula presents numerous attractions for the holiday-makes and the artists, and tourism is of the most important activities of the region.

Wales. Wales is the largest of the peninsula on the western side of Britain. It consists of a complex of worn down mountain ranges representing high. They are called Cambrian Mountains. The highest and most glaciated area occurs in the north, especially around Snowdon (1.085 m) and often the mountains approach close to the sea.

The Cambrians largely comprise the upland areas, generally and collectively described as the Welsh Massif. In the south the massif includes an important coal­field, on which an industrial area has grown. It is the most densely populated of 208 m/n inhabiting about one-eight of the area.

Two relief divisions may be distinguished in South-Wales;

1. A coastal plain which in the south-eastern part around Cardiff becomes up
to 16 km wide, and

2. The upland areas of the coal-field proper, which rise between 245 and 380
meters.

Much of the land of Wales consists of bare rock, it produce not good enough crops. There are barren moorland and rough pasture, with only a few' people to the square kilometers. But this region constitutes the heartland of Wales, for centered upon the massif in the Welsh culture where the traditions and language of a Celtic people are best preserved in the upland areas. Sheep are the basis of the rural economy, and the low-lying parts near the coast and in the valley bottoms dairy farming predominates.

Scotland. Scotland may be divided into three major physical regions; the Highlands, the Southern Uplands and the Central Lowlands.

The Scotland highlands lie west of a line from Aberdeen to the mouth of the Clyde. They form the most extensive and the most scarcely populated of the three regions, the mountains are separated into two parts by Glen More, or the Great Glen, a long crack in the earth's crust, running from north-west. To the south are the Grampians, which are generally higher than the North-West highlands, and contain loftiest summits, including Ben Nevis (1.347m) the highest peak in the British Isles. Glen More contains three lakes: Lock Ness, Lock Oich, and Lock Lochy. Climatically the region has some of the most severe weather experienced in Britain.

The Highlands comprise 47% of the land area of Scotland. At the same time Scotland’s population is 15%.

The Southern Uplands extend from the Central Valley of Scotland in the north to the Pennine Hills and Lake District in the South. Upland areas extend into the Central Valley, just as the Cheviots merge into the Pennines and the lowlands on both east and west coasts into the lowlands of North Umbria and those that surround the Lake District.

The Central lowlands of Scotland, sometimes known as the Midland Valley, lie between the Highlands and the Southern Uplands.

The Central lowlands are the most densely populated of the three main regions of Scotland; they occupy about 15% of it is people.

Ireland. Ireland is predominantly a rural island, with a generally low density of population and indeed few large towns other than those situated on the coast. The region’s geography of the islands is simpler than that of Great Britain, and especially than the regional geography of England.

The Central Plain of Ireland stretches west-east across the country from coast to coast.

Around the plain is a broken rim of mountains. In the extreme north-east is the Antrim Plateau or Mountains of Antrim.

Being geographically an island and a single unit, Ireland is politically divided into the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland, comprising six countries of Ulster which was one of the provinces of ancient Ireland: Antrim, Londdnol, Tyrone, Fermangh, Armagh and Down.

 

Climate and weather

Weather is not the same as climate. The weather of the British Isles is notoriously variable. The climate of a place or region, on the other hand, represents the average weather conditions through the year. In every part of the British Isles obvious changes are taking place as winter passes into spring, spring into summer, and so through autumn to winter.

Britain has a generally mild and temperate climate, which is dominated by marine influences and is rainy and equable. Britain's climate, which is much milder than that in any other country, is in the same latitudes.

This means that not only marine influences to warm the land in winter and cool it in summer, but also that the winds blowing over the Atlantic have a similar effect and at the same time carry large amounts of moisture which is deposited over the land as rain, Britain's climate is generally one of mild winters and cool summers, with rain throughout the year, although there are considerable regional changes.

Rainfall is fairly well distributed throughout the year, put on average, March to June are the driest month and October to January the wettest.

 

Lecture 3

Political system of the UK