a rotten english question

It’s that time of year again: I’m about to head off to the UK for the summer, and as usual I have a puzzle that I hope someone will have solved by the time I get back online, but also as usual you should note that it’s likely to tax your brain cells quite severely. Here it is:

What connects the following five ‘clues’?
• an Irish lake;
• a sedimentary deposit;
• the foundation of Christianity;
• in northern England, a limestone escarpment exposed by glacial action in the last ice age; and
• weightless footwear.

I don’t want to boast, but if you should find this little poser too easy, perhaps I can point out that, to date, no one has submitted the correct solution to An English Question. Knowing this increases my smugness that nobody will succeed in solving this riddle either.

As usual, I will acknowledge all correct answers, but I won’t actually publish the solution at all unless I’ve received at least one correct answer, and that answer will be flagged up with a ‘spoiler alert’ to give later readers a chance to work it out for themselves.

similar puzzles
A Hard Question
What’s the Connection?
Odd One Out
All Greek to Me
Out of Order
Out of Order #2

To date, A Hard Question has not been solved. Be the first to submit the correct answer!