...in which we set out from springtime Orton to explore the limestone scars of the Westmorland Dales in the company of husband-and-wife geologist / botanist team Syvia and Peter Woodhead. Alongside bubbling Chapel Beck, we encounter early flowers and a lively March hare as we learn about the geological origins of limestone - in distant coral seas some 350 million years ago. Arriving on Orton Scar, with its big-sky panoramas, we reflect on the industrial processing of lime – for agriculture and construction – and observe the 'lasagne' layering of different eras of deposition. Passing limestone pavement on the shoulder of Knott – grikes forming micro-climates for an abundance of rare plants – we encounter myriad fossils, of corals, gastropods and sponges, that record cycles of life and mass extinction. Chased by a storm that never arrives, we finish our walking circuit at Gamelands Stone Circle, where we reflect on the power and legacy of ice.
For more about the Westmorland Dales Landscape Partnership project, see friendsofthelakedistrict.org.uk/westmorland-dales-hidden-landscapes-partnership
The GeoTrail walks can be found at friendsofthelakedistrict.org.uk/westmorland-dales-geotrails-2022
For Cumbria GeoCoonservation see cumbriageoconservation.org.uk
Countrystride #84: Latrigg - with Friends of the Lake District
Countrystride #83: Alston & Isaac’s Tea Trail
Countrystride #82: Dry-stone walling
Countrystride #81: Cumbrian dialect
Countrystride #80: ILLGILL HEAD - In search of the sublime
Countrystride #79: Arthur Ransome - Life, loves & literature
Countrystride #78: The Carlisle-Settle line & springtime in Eden
Countrystride #77: Fell ponies – On Roundthwaite Common with Libby Robinson
Countrystride #76: Wild Fell – Restoring Haweswater, with Lee Schofield
COUNTRYSTRIDE #75: The battle to save Ullswater
Countrystride #74: Railways of Cumbria
Countrystride #73: Millican Dalton - ’Caveman of Borrowdale’
Countrystride #72: Review of 2021
Countrystride #71: A Lake District Christmas
Countrystride #70: Caldbeck - A community through time
Countrystride #69: Blencathra with Andy Airey
Countrystride #68: Richard Leafe - The National Park at 70
Countrystride #67: Ghosts on the coast
Countrystride#66: Eskdale - Rain & recollections
Countrystride #65: The passionate sisterhood - Sisters and wives of the Lake Poets
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