Shocking geography results
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Our knowledge of where landmarks are in Britain is appalling according to new research published yesterday.
Land’s End marks the northern tip of Britain, Hadrian’s Wall is in Cornwall and the Jurassic Coast is to be found in Scotland, are just some of the shocking answers in a report conducted by Virgin trains.
Nearly one in 10 people believe the city nearest the Lake District is Newcastle, rather than Carlisle, while one in five think the Isle of Man is in the English Channel.
A poll of 1,000 people by Virgin Trains found a particular lack of general knowledge among Britain’s young people. More than a third of those quizzed under 30 think Land’s End is in the north when really it marks the southern-most tip of the country. And a north-south divide really does exist with two in three Londoners unsure about which city is nearest to the Lake District.
One in five Britons think Hadrian’s Wall divides either Devon and Cornwall, Yorkshire and Lancashire, England and Wales and even north and south London
A reliance on modern technology such as Google maps, satellite navigation and internet route finders is being blamed for significant numbers of people having a blinkered view of their country.
Social network sites such as Facebook and Twitter also mean that people often keep in touch with friends without travelling to visit them. The poll quizzed people aged 16 to 60-plus on the location of some famous areas of Britain, how long it took to travel between some cities and typical train journey times. Almost half of people did not know that Carlisle in Cumbria is nearer to the Lake District than Glasgow, Newcastle, Cardiff, Oxford, Leeds and Manchester, whilst eight per cent thought it is nearer to Newcastle, five per cent said Oxford and two per cent even said Cardiff in Wales.
Ignorance about the Lake District location was highest among under 30s with 54 per cent not knowing it is nearest to Carlisle. And Londoners were least knowledgeable about the Lake District with only 34 per cent knowing its location. Nearly half of those questioned (47 per cent) did not know that Inverness in Scotland is the most northerly city compared to Aberdeen, Cardiff, Portsmouth and Leeds. That figure rose to 54 per cent among people aged under 30, said Virgin Trains.
A third of those polled did not know that the Isle of Man is in the Irish Sea, placing it in the English Channel (21%), North Sea (9%) and Atlantic (3%).
Arthur Leathley, communications director, Virgin Trains said the research clearly showed the “significant numbers of people in Britain” that are pretty vague about the location of some of our most famous landmarks.