Key Facts

• The Eden Basin is in north-west England, between the mountains of the Lake District and the Pennines.

• The River Eden’s source is in the Pennine hills in south Cumbria.

• It flows north-west through Appleby-in-Westmorland and Carlisle.

• Its mouth is in the Solway Firth at the Scottish border.

• The river basin is in a largely rural area, with many scenic landscapes that are popular with tourists.

• There are a wide variety of river landforms.

Variety of Landforms

Waterfalls

• Hell Gill Force is a waterfall near the source of the River Eden.

• It has formed where there is a change in the rock type from hard limestone to softer sandstone.

• The water has eroded the soft rock forming a step down in the river channel.

• Below the waterfall there is a steep-sided gorge, left behind as the waterfall has retreated up the valley.

V-shaped Valleys

• many streams flow down the steep slopes of the hill side at the edge of the basin from about 600 m above sea level.

• Weathering (by freeze-thaw), transportation (traction) and erosion (by abrasion) have carved out steep-sided V-shaped valleys, e.g. in the north-east of the Lake District.

Meanders

• As more tributaries join the River Eden, the river gets bigger, which gives it more power to erode the river channel sideways.

• In the lower course, the river valley becomes wider and flatter, and meanders form on the valley floor, e.g near Salkeld.

• As these meananders have grown, some get cut off to form ox-bow lakes, e.g. where Briggle Beck joins the Eden near Salkeld.

Floodplains

• Carlisle is built on the floodplain of the River Eden.

• Here the land is low-lying and flatter (less than 100 m above sea level).

• As meanders have migrated across the valley floor, the floodplain has become wider.

• Sediment has also been deposited when the river has flooded, building up the floodplain.