﻿Hello geographers my name is Mr. Harding. In today's lesson we're going to be looking at the landscape of the UK and in particular how geology has affected it. For today's lesson you need to make sure you have a pen and some lined paper to write on. I would also recommend you try and find somewhere nice and quiet in your homes if you can, and turn off any apps or notifications just so you can really focus. When you are ready we will start. Today we're going to be studying the physical landscapes of the UK. Some countries have a range of biomes that the plants and animals have learned to adapt and live with. Russia for example experiences Tundra, Taiga, temperate deciduous forests, and so on. This creates a lot of diversity in the country. Now the UK may only have a single biome, the temperate deciduous forest, but there is still some variation in the landscape of the UK. In particular for geographers, there are three types of landscape that we study. All of these landscapes are influenced by the geology, so the rock type. The first type of landscape is upland areas. So the main upland areas of the UK tend to be in the north, and west, of the country. These areas, such as the Scottish Highlands, and Northern Wales, are formed of hard igneous rock, so things like granite. And metamorphic, so things like slate, which are resistant to erosion. The UK's main lowland areas tend to be in the south and east, and have formed a much softer sedimentary rock such as chalk and clay. They erode much more easily. No cities are in lowland areas, and often on the UK's main rivers, such as London on the Thames, Liverpool on the Mersey, or Cardiff on the Severn mastery. So rivers play a huge influence in our landscape. Today we're going to focus on three examples. Although there are several examples of upland, lowland, and river systems, we're going to focus on these three particular ones. The first is an upland region called the Grampian mountains found in Scotland. We're also going to look at Holderness coastline which is found in east England. And the River Clyde which is also found in Scotland. We're going to look at each of the landscapes one at a time. As we go through, complete the missing columns of this table. The first thing you need to do is to copy this table on a whole A-4 page. I recommend that you use a ruler and pencil to do this, but do your writing in pen. Please pause now and let's just set this up so we can continue with the lesson. Okay great. In a moment I'm going to go through the Grampian Mountains, the Holderness coastline, and the River Clyde. As I go through you need to find out two bits of information. Firstly, you need to find out the location. And I want you to use compass directions. I want you to write down some key descriptions of the landscape. Things you need to look out for are what is the rock type? Is it sparsely populated or densely populated? And any other relevant information. Let's start that now. Our first example is the Grampian mountains as an example of an upland region. Before we go through this, the most important thing to know is that upland regions are formed of hard rock. This hard rock does not erode very easily, so it's resistant. Rocks include; igneous rock such as granite, or metamorphic rock such as slate. This means those highland regions have not eroded very easily, and mountains and hills are left behind. The Grampian mountains are located in the northwest of the UK in Scotland. It is home to Ben Nevis, which is the highest mountain in the UK. The land here is steep, rocky, and at high elevation. That means the land is very high up. It's not surprising then, that the land is sparsely populated, which means not many people live there. This is because the land is harsh. You can't farm very well, it's very difficult to build anything, and so on. People have not settled there in history. This here is a picture of Ben Nevis in the background. You can see some settlements, but just notice how the settlements are in the lowland region of the mountains. When it comes to the actual mountains in the foreground of the picture, you see very little vegetation and very steep sided slopes, which leads to a sparsely populated area. Pause now if you want to just spend a couple of minutes writing some key notes down. Okay so now we've come to our lowland areas. Our example is the Holderness coastline. Now a reminder when it comes to the geology, lowlands are formed of softer sedimentary rocks like chalk and clay. This is eroded very easily leaving land to be flat. The Holderness coastline is located in the east of the UK on the coastline of the North Sea. It contains many coastal towns and villages. The land here is very flat, and the cliffs are made of soft boulder clay, so erode really quickly. The landscape has good conditions for living, so is relatively densely populate. So lots of activities can take place like trade, because of the sea, farming, because of the flat lands and fertile soils. If you pause now and just write down some key information. So think about geology, it's population density, and so on. Here is a picture of the Holderness coastline. You can see how flat the land is behind those cliffs. There is a lot of evidence there of those cliffs eroding. Remember they erode really easily because they are soft rock. Finally, we have our River system; the River Clyde. This is located in the north of the UK in Scotland. The upper course is steep, mountainous area, with low population density. Whereas the middle and lower course has a much flatter relief, so high to the land, which is much higher in population density. Glasgow, a major city in Scotland, is located on the flood plain. The flood plain is found in the lower course, and it's characterised by being very flat. The soils there are also very fertile because they are irrigated by the river. You'll find along rivers, lots of settlements happened. Over time cities like Glasgow have sprung up. So if you pause and just use some of that information to complete your table. So you can see her a couple of pictures. The picture on the left hand side is of the River Clyde in the upper course. As you can see there that the river is much more steep. There are waterfalls because of that. Whereas the river on the right hand side, the same river, is in a lowland area, running through Glasgow. You can see there it's much flatter and much wider. Did you get the following? For upland areas, the location should have been northwest of the UK in Scotland. For lowland areas it should have been east of the UK on the North Sea coast. Make sure you've got capital letters for the North Sea. And River systems was north of the UK in Scotland. The description of the landscape for the Grampians is it is mountainous with steep, rocky land. It's a harsh landscape with a low population density. Whereas the lowland areas is a flat land with soft rock cliffs that erode quickly, and has relative high population density. River systems you see a contrast here. The rivers in the upper course is mountainous, whereas the lower and middle courses are much flatter. This creates a difference in population density. In the upper course you have low population density, and the lower middle you have relatively high population density. If you pause and just make sure you've been really accurate with those terms, and self assess. That does bring us to the end of today's lesson. I really hope you've enjoyed learning about the physical landscapes of the UK and in particular about how geology affects it. There is one small thing I would like you to do before you go, and that's to write down three things that you have learned today, just to really help consolidate your learning. Before you go just a massive well done from me, and enjoy the rest of your day and any learning that you do. Goodbye.

The biome that the UK is located within is known as...

An example of an upland area in the UK is...

The tallest mountain in the UK is...

Lowland areas often have larger population density than upland areas because...

The city that can be found in the lower course of the River Clyde is...

Physical landscapes in the UK

Location of major upland, lowland, and river systems in the UK

In this lesson, we will be learning about the location of major upland, lowland and river systems in the UK.

Lesson overview:Physical landscapes of the UK

Major landscapes of the UK: