COPELAND

borough (district), administrative county of Cumbria, historic county of Cumberland, northwestern England, in the southwestern part of the county along the Irish Sea coast. Copeland is a scenic mountain-and-lake region coextensive with the southwestern part of the Lake District National Park in the Cumbrian Mountains. Scafell Pike, reaching an elevation of 3,210 feet (978 metres) above sea level, is England's highest point and is located in the borough's northeastern corner. There are also narrow coastal plains along the sea. Evidence of ancient Roman and Viking settlements is found throughout the borough. Coal mined in the vicinity of the port of Whitehaven on the northwestern coast and iron ore mined near Egremont 5 miles (8 km) southeast and at Millom in the extreme south were used to develop the late 19th- and early 20th-century iron and steel industry at Workington, 8 miles (13 km) north of Whitehaven. In the late 20th century only one of these mines remained open, producing only small amounts of high-grade hematite. The borough's contemporary varied industrial base includes modern chemical works based on anhydrite mined near Whitehaven. Whitehaven, the administrative centre, is also a fishing port (cod and pilchard). The United Kingdom's first (1956) nuclear power station, Calder Hall, is 10 miles (16 km) south of Whitehaven. The adjacent Windscale nuclear power research station was formally shut down in 1981 and was used as a test-bed for the dismantling of a nuclear reactor. Area 285 square miles (737 square km). Pop. (1998 est.) 70,000.