page_title: Furness
section_title: Geography
hierarchical_section_title: Furness / Geography
caption_attribution_description: English: View of the Duddon valley, (also known as Dunnerdale) in the English en:Lake District near en:Ulpha facing north, believed to be taken from the lower slopes of en:Dow Crag looking towards en:Harter Fell and en:Eskdale beyond. Copyright Peter Moore, made source myself.
context_page_description: Furness is a peninsula and region of Cumbria in northwestern England. Together with the Cartmel Peninsula it forms North Lonsdale, historically an exclave of Lancashire.
  The Furness Peninsula, also known as Low Furness, is an area of villages, agricultural land and low-lying moorland, with the industrial town of Barrow at its head. The peninsula is bordered by the estuaries of the River Duddon to the west and the River Leven in Morecambe Bay to the east. The wider region of Furness consists of the peninsula and the area known as High Furness, which is a relatively mountainous and sparsely populated part of England, extending inland into the Lake District and containing the Furness Fells. The inland boundary of the region is formed by the rivers Leven, Brathay and Duddon, and the lake of Windermere. Off the southern tip of Furness is Walney Island, 11 miles long, as well as several smaller islands.
  The Borough of Barrow-in-Furness, which developed when the Furness iron industry flourished in the 19th century, is the region's largest settlement, with a population of over 91,000.
context_section_description: Furness's border follows the River Duddon up to Wrynose Pass, and then the Brathay until it flows into Windermere. The mere forms most of the eastern boundary, with the rest being made up of the Leven, from its source at Windermere's southern tip to its mouth at Morecambe Bay. In total Furness has an area of about 250 square miles (647 sq  km).
  The Furness Fells are formed of Ordovician volcanic rocks, and Silurian shales and slates to the south. They are cut through by Windermere, Coniston Water, and numerous valleys which drain into the Esk, the Duddon, and Morecambe Bay. The higher ground is rocky heathland, with frequent tarns, while the lower ground supports pasture and woodland. In the east there are two main chains of hills: one overlooking Windermere, with Latterbarrow (245m) as its highest point, and the other, which reaches 300m, overlooking Coniston Water. Between them is flat country and Esthwaite Water. West of Coniston Water is the highest range, the Coniston Fells, with the Coniston Old Man (803m) as its highest point (and historically the highest point in Lancashire). A lesser range extends from Torver to just north of Dalton, but south of that the landscape is flat; this area is also called Plain Furness. The low rolling hills of Low Furness are formed of glacial deposits, mainly boulder clay, above Triassic sandstone and Carboniferous limestone. There are large deposits of iron ore here, of very pure quality.
  The human geography of the area is dominated by the town of Barrow-in-Furness. Barrow is located on the tip of the peninsula and Walney Island, and the Borough of Barrow-in-Furness, which includes the small town of Dalton-in-Furness and the town of Millom (the latter of which, although statistically in "Furness" for this purpose, is not actually part of the defined geographic area known as Furness) has a population of 69,100. Barrow, which grew from a small village to a large town during the 19th century, is characterized by a grid pattern of streets of terraced houses, surrounded by more contemporary suburbs. Though the Port of Barrow still contains much industry, there has also been significant redevelopment of former dock areas into retail parks, office blocks and spaces of light industry. The other major town in the area is Ulverston, at the border of Low and High Furness, and the population of Ulverston and its surrounding villages is 17,307. The corridor along the main A590 road between Ulverston and Barrow is relatively densely populated and urban. Despite decline, industry remains a bigger employer in this part of Furness than most of the UK, with BAE Systems, Kimberly-Clark (both Barrow) and GlaxoSmithKline (Ulverston) the largest employers. In Barrow and up the west coast of Furness, the Sellafield Nuclear site is also a significant employer. The rest of Furness is rural, with the mountainous, wooded and lacustrine environments. To the west, the main settlements of Kirkby-in-Furness and Broughton-in-Furness are dominated by farming and commuting. The Lake District National Park covers most of High Furness, with Coniston and Hawkshead the main centres for tourism, while major tourist attractions include Grizedale Forest, the Aquarium of the Lakes, South Lakes Safari Zoo and the Lakeside and Haverthwaite Railway. The northern and eastern communities of Furness share more in common with the Lake District towns of Ambleside and Bowness, outside of the region, than with the more urban areas of Low Furness. Mining was once a major part of the local economy, but today only the Burlington Slate Quarries at Kirkby remain of note.
  The A590 is the main road into the region from the M6 Motorway. The A595 is the main route up the western coast of Furness, and the A593/A5084 run north-south from Low Furness to High Furness. The Furness Line provides railway connections to the West Coast Mainline through the south of Furness, and the Cumbria Coast Line is a slow rural branch line with services running north to Copeland and Carlisle. The Windermere Ferry in the east of Furness is England's only vehicular
caption: View from the slopes of Dow Crag in the Coniston Fells.
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