The north-west Highlands of Scotland have a unique scenery. Rolling knolls of rock stand out on low-lying, boggy land, which is interspersed with isolated, forbidding mountains like Suilven, Ben Stack and Quinag. Lochans, waterfalls, tiny crofting communities and the occasional castle dot the landscape. The whole area was gouged by glaciers during the last ice age, leaving this starkly beautiful landscape behind.

Evidence of the great forces and endless time that have shaped this landscape is all around you here. Road cuttings at Laxford Bridge show dykes and veins of different rocks cross-cutting each other in breathtaking three-dimensional views. Across Loch Glencoul near Kylesku is a stunning view of a fault called the Glencoul Thrust, clearly showing vastly ancient Lewisian gneiss somehow sitting atop younger Cambrian quartzite. Erratic boulders, dropped by retreating glaciers at the end of the ice age, speak of thousands of tonnes of ice inexorably grinding out the steep slopes and deep valleys. It feels like everywhere you look, the geology speaks to you of the astonishing forces that have been at play here in the unimaginably distant — and not so distant — past.

The Moine Thrust

Thrust faults are low-angle faults where the ‘hanging wall’ (the rocks above the fault plane) moves up relative to the ‘footwall’ (the rocks below the fault plane). They are indicative of compression, where rocks have been squeezed and eventually fractured by tectonic forces, sliding the hanging wall rocks up and over the footwall rocks.

The Moine Thrust Belt is a fault zone that cuts across the north-west corner of Scotland, from Loch Eriboll in the north to the Sleat peninsula on the Isle of Skye in the south. Like most major faults, the fault zone comprises several faults branching off each other in a complex arrangement that accommodated different phases of compression over a long period of time: the Sole Thrust, the Glencoul Thrust and the Moine Thrust itself are all part of the fault zone. The Moine Thrust marks the eastern edge of the Moine Thrust Belt.

This fault was active during the Caledonian orogeny, a period of mountain building that happened over about 100 million years, from the Ordovician Period to the Early Devonian. In this area, the main movements occurred between 440 and 410 million years ago, during the Silurian Period. Before this time, Scotland (Caledonia in Latin) was physically separated from the rest of the UK by an ocean called the Iapetus Ocean. Instead, it was part of a continent called Laurentia, alongside parts of North America; fossils found in this part of Scotland are identical to those found in North America and different to those from England and Wales.

As tectonic forces closed the ocean, compression forced older rocks in the east up and over the younger rocks in the west. The rocks folded and fractured in response to the compression, creating a complex geology of thrust structures called a duplex that generations of geology students have visited to learn the art of geological mapping.

Knockan Crag National Nature Reserve

At , between Ullapool and Inchnadamph, visitors can take a short, steep walk up to the plane of the Moine Thrust (which elsewhere lurks on rather more inaccessible mountainsides). Just above the car park is the Rock Room, an exhibition about the importance of this part of the world to the history of geology.

It was in this area that Geological Survey geologists Ben Peach and John Horne made their studies that resolved the ‘’ of the 19th century. This was an argument between geologists about the rocks of the area, where the older (2.8 billion years old) Lewisian gneiss seemed to lie above the younger (500 million years old) Cambrian quartzite and limestone, which seemed impossible to 19th century geologists. The work of Peach and Horne, and other geologists such as Charles Lapworth, proved that huge movements of the crust had pushed the older rocks on top of the younger ones. A monument to Peach and Horne stands overlooking Loch Assynt near Inchnadamph to mark their dedication.

The walk up to Knockan Crag is steep but short, and rewarded with beautiful views of Cùl Mòr and Cùl Beag over to the west and, for the excitable geologist, a close-up encounter with the famous fault itself. The trail is also dotted with artworks inspired by the geology and landscape of the area.

The North-west Highlands Geopark

This entire area is so significant to geology that, in 2004, it was designated as , Scotland first UNESCO Geopark. It begins at Ullapool and the Summer Isles in the south and stretches north, bounded by the sea to the west and north and by the Moine Thrust Belt to the east, covering over 2000 km² of mountains, hidden glens and the most stunning, white sand beaches this side of a postcard from the Caribbean. There are trails to follow, the Rock Stop visitor centre, local guides and self-driving tour routes, amongst much more, to help you explore this beautiful and fascinating corner of the country.

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Lina Hannaford

Bradgate Park is a large, public park located between Leicester and Loughborough in the Charnwood Forest area. The park is renowned for its Precambrian volcanic rocks and its remarkable fossils. It was once believed that there were no fossils older than the Cambrian Period (541 to 485 million years ago), but the discovery of the fossil Charnia in these Precambrian rocks made the area famous for changing our understanding of early life on Earth. 

Geology 

The geology of Bradgate Park fits within the wider geology of Charnwood Forest, which contains some of the oldest rocks in England, dating back to the Precambrian (more than 541 million years ago). When the rocks of Bradgate Park were forming, England was mostly under water and was located close to the southern tropics, just off the margin of the Gondwana supercontinent, where there was active tectonism at the time.  

The tectonism led to volcanic activity, creating the various rock types we see in Bradgate today, such as intrusive diorite, as well as sedimentary deposits that contain volcanic material.  

Within and around Bradgate Park, the oldest geological unit — the — appears as the crags around the hill crowned by Old John Tower. Overlying the Precambrian rocks is a younger sequence from the Triassic Period (which is still pretty old at 247 million years!) that consists of red and silty mudstone called the . However, these rocks can be hard to see around the park as much of the mudstone is covered by grass, with just a few outcrops visible near the river south of Bradgate House. The red bricks of Bradgate House are said to have been made from these Mercia Mudstone Group rocks.  

The most recent deposits in Bradgate Park are from the last ice age, when the sediments were carried by glaciers from northern Britain. These were deposited in the area when the glacier melted and retreated to the north, around 10 000 years ago.

Fossils 

In addition to having some of the oldest rocks in England, Bradgate Park is also known for some of the oldest fossils on Earth: Charnia. Charnia lived about 635 to 538.8 million years ago, which dates back to the Ediacaran period, and are some of the earliest known examples of multicellular organisms. They represent a unique and important part of the history of life on Earth.  

Fossils of the species C. masoni were discovered in the eastern part of Charnwood Forest in 1957 and were the first macrofossil to be found anywhere in the world known to be Precambrian in age. The fossils were formed when these moderately soft-bodied organisms came to rest on the bottom of the ocean and were rapidly buried, pressing them down into the sediment. This created impressions that are typically 1 mm or less in height, meaning they are often difficult to spot and can only be seen when the sun is low in the sky during the autumn months. However, Charnia fossil imprints are displayed and available to view at the Charnwood Museum in Loughborough.  

Bradgate Park 

Aside from the fascinating geology, Bradgate is also known for its large herds of red and fallow deer that are free to roam the park and often easily spotted from the footpaths. The site has been used as a deer park since the medieval period and it is now home to around 550 animals. Bradgate also has several interesting structures including the ruins of Bradgate House, one of the earliest brick buildings in the country and a Grade II listed building.  

The house was the ancestral home and birthplace of Lady Jane Grey, who was Queen of England for nine days in 1553 before she was overthrown and later executed by her cousin, Queen Mary I. Construction on the house started in 1499 and was completed by 1520 but the house was abandoned by 1739 and had fallen into ruin by 1790.   

The site is now looked after by the Bradgate Park Trust and the remnants of the house are nestled within the heart of the park. In the north-west corner, on the tallest hill in the park (and the second highest point in Leicestershire), sits the Old John Tower, an 18th century folly that has been dubbed the ‘icon of Leicestershire’ for its prominent presence and appearance.  

The tower was built from local granite in 1784 to replace an old, dilapidated windmill and was used as a viewing platform for horse racing and fox hunts on the estate by the 5th Earl of Stamford. On the hill adjacent to the Old John Tower stands the Yeomanry War Memorial. Erected on consecrated ground, the obelisk was built in 1924 and is dedicated to the Leicestershire Yeomanry field regiments that fought and died in the Boer War and the First and Second World Wars. Heading up the hill to the folly and war memorial offers walkers beautiful views across the park and the surrounding countryside.  

Advice 

Bradgate Park is a deer park, which means the deer are allowed to roam freely in certain parts of the park. There is a map at every entrance to show these areas. If you bring a dog, it must be on a lead in these sections of the park both for the safety of the deer and for your dog, as well as for the other visitors. This is especially important in spring when there are new fawns, as the deer are very protective of them.  

Bradgate Park is a large, exposed hill with very little tree cover, so it is common for it to be windy and there is little shelter if it rains — do bring an extra layer for warmth as the weather can turn quickly. Boots are recommended as some of the trails have jagged rocks sticking out of the ground and some of the hillsides can be quite steep.  

Getting there 

The park is located close to the M1 and several junctions between Leicester and Loughborough can be taken to get there. There are two car parks on the northern side of Bradgate Park and another to the south of the park if arriving through Newton Linford. The only public transport is the 125 bus, which travels between Castle Donington, Coalville and Leicester. 

About the authors

Pen y Fan is the highest peak in South Wales, rising to 886Ìým above sea level in the central part of the Bannau Brycheiniog (Brecon Beacons) National Park. Pen y Fan is one of a series of flat-topped mountains in a landscape of high hills that include, from west to east:

• Corn Du (873 m)
• Pen y Fan
• Cribyn (795 m)
• Fan y Big (717 m)

The rocks that underlie this part of the Bannau are Devonian in age (about 419 to 359 million years old) and part of an informal grouping of rock units known as the Old Red Sandstone (ORS), which is collectively late Silurian to early Carboniferous in age. Rocks of the ORS were deposited on a continent called Laurussia at subtropical to tropical latitudes. This was an important time for the development of land plants, which had a major impact on the atmosphere and global climate by lowering atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. This in turn profoundly affected the style of alluvial sedimentation during this interval by stabilising flood plains and facilitating the development of soils.

The red rocks of the (407.6 to 393 million years old) are exposed in the upper parts of the north-facing, scarp faces of Corn Du and Pen y Fan. The Brownstones Formation, which is composed of interbedded sandstone and siltstone, was deposited by rivers in extensive sheets in which the proportion of sandstone in relation to siltstone increases higher up the sequence. This variation is thought to be due to the change from distal to proximal environments where they were deposited on an alluvial plain. The interbedded nature of this unit is responsible for the prominent bedding visible in the scarp faces.

The Brownstones Formation is unconformably overlain by the (382.7 to 358.9 million years old and formerly known as the Plateau Beds). The Pen y Fan Formation is thought to have been deposited in a mainly fluvial environment but with some tidal influence. The unconformity corresponds to a period of time during the Middle Devonian when a phase of mountain building known as the late Caledonian (Acadian) Orogeny occurred and the rocks of the Pen y Fan Formation were deposited after this period of uplift. Being comparatively more resistant to weathering than the underlying Brownstones Formation, the Pen y Fan Formation rocks are responsible for the distinctive flat tops of the Bannau.

The dramatic scenery of Bannau Brycheiniog was partly created during the more recent past. Although the general form of the landscape is likely to have been established prior to the Quaternary (2.58 million years ago), it is the repeated growth of ice sheets or glaciers during the late Devensian (26Ìý000 to 15Ìý000 years ago) that created the current landscape with its modified river valleys, oversteepend valley heads, cirques and escarpments. Periglacial conditions also created slope instabilities, landslides and debris flows, processes that continue to the present day.

The small lake that lies in the lower ground to the north-west of Pen y Fan is called Llyn Cwm Llwch. The lake lies in the most shaded part of the valley head, where it receives less sunshine compared to the surrounding area.ÌýDuring the Devensian, a cirque glacier cut the steep valley walls now occupied by the lake and deposited the material that makes up the moraine surrounding the lake. The cirque glacier would have formed between the moraine and the steep scarp wall where, during the Devensian, snow persisted in the shadow to the north of the escarpment.

Walking routes

There are a number of paths to reach Pen y Fan. The shortest ones, both circular routes of around four miles, are from the Storey Arms Education Centre or the National Trust Pont ar Daf car parks, where there are obvious paths to the summits.

An alternative, more challenging, 10-mile route is the Horseshow Ridge Walk. This walk starts at the Taf Fechan car park and heads north to Fan y Big, Cribyn, Pen y Fan and Corn Du before heading south-east along the Craig Gwaun Taf and Graig Fan Ddu ridges along a circular route back towards the car park at Taf Fechan. Taking and being able to use an OS map and compass is essential for this route. 

Considerations

Weather conditions are very changeable and so take clothing and supplies for all conditions: water and sunscreen for warm days and waterproofs and warm clothes for colder and wetter days. Do not go too close to the escarpment edges, especially on windy days. Pen y Fan can also be very busy so plan your trip to avoid the crowds.

About the author

Kents Cavern is a show cave in the town of Torquay in the south of Devon, at the heart of the English Riviera and part of . It contains spectacular cave formations (or ‘speleothems’) such as stalagmites, stalactites and flowstone and is world-famous because a piece of jawbone discovered here in 1927 is the oldest known, modern human fossil from north-west Europe.

Geology

Kents Cavern is found within the Torquay Limestone Formation, which is approximately 388 to 393 million years old, making it Devonian in age. This is unusual in the UK, as most cave systems here have formed in Carboniferous limestones (359 to 299 million years old).

During the Devonian, Great Britain lay to the south of the equator and the Torquay Limestone Formation formed in shallow, tropical seas. Hundreds of millions of years later in the Pleistocene — at least half a million years ago — water began to percolate through joints and fractures in the rock and started to dissolve it away. Over time, the cracks widened into fissures and then small passages. These would have been completely filled with water, which flowed through them creating long, circular cave passages and huge caverns as the water dissolved away more rock. Eventually, the water table dropped and the caves became dry.

The caves didn’t stay empty, however; they began to fill up with sediment carried in by debris flows entering at the far end of the cave system. The sediment included not only mud and rocks, but also the bones of animals and stone tools made by ancient humans. Animals like cave bears and hyenas also used the caves for hibernation and dens and left both their remains and the remains of their prey behind amongst the infilling sediment.

The sediment was then covered by a layer of calcium carbonate (calcite) called a stalagmite floor, which came from water dripping from the roofs of the caves, forming stalactites hanging from the cave ceilings and sealing in the sediment beneath it. This floor was subsequently covered by another influx of sediment during the last ice age, about 10 000 years ago, and again this was sealed in by another stalagmite floor on top.

Speleothems

Kents Cavern has many spectacular and beautiful rock formations within it, including stalagmites, stalactites, pillars, flowstone and straws.

Archaeological discoveries

Although the cavern had been known about since Roman times, it wasn’t until the nineteenth century that people began to explore the cave passages and come to realise their significance to Quaternary geology, archaeology and palaeoanthropology (the study of human evolution).

A few archaeological excavations had been made in the caves in the 1820s but it was the work of William Pengelly that brought fame to Kents Cavern. Pengelly worked in the caves for fifteen years between 1865 and 1880 with his small team of diggers. His pioneering techniques, including the first 3D grid mapping system, are the foundations on which modern archaeological methods are based. He was diligent in recording his finds and his team found bones of extinct animals including hyenas, cave bears, cave lions and woolly mammoths, and tools made by both modern humans and human ancestors. The oldest stone axes date back half a million years and would have been made by species such as Homo erectus, a direct ancestor of modern humans.

The most famous find, however, was made in 1927 by Arthur Ogilvy: .

How do we know how old the finds are?

The stalagmite floors in Kents Cavern sealed in the debris flow sediments beneath them. Samples taken of the stalagmites can be dated accurately and precisely using uranium–thorium dating methods, and even individual growth bands in a speleothem can be dated. This allows us to to investigate climate constrain the age of the sediments either above or below the stalagmite floor: for example, anything below the 500 000-year old stalagmite floor must be more then 500 000 years old.

Visiting Kents Cavern

Kents Cavern is open to the public Monday to Sunday from 10:30, with the first guided tour starting at 10:30. The cave stays at a constant temperature of around 13°C no matter what the weather outside, which can feel nice and warm in winter but a bit chilly in summer so choose your clothes carefully! Underfoot the caves can be a little slippery and rough in places, so take care if you are not steady on your feet.

Thanks

Thanks to Andrew Farrant and Rhian Kendall for their help with this postcard.

About the author

Lina Hannaford

Aberystwyth is one of the biggest towns in Mid Wales and home to the University of Aberystwyth which recently (June 2023) celebrated its .

, which means ‘mouth of the river Ystwyth’, is in the Ceredigion region and is famous for its mile-long Victorian promenade and the oldest pier in Wales (built in 1864). At the northern end of the prom is the 430 foot-high Constitution Hill, where you will find the world largest , which provides a bird eye view of 1000 square miles of a 360° sweep of the town.  Constitution Hill is accessible via the Cliff Railway, which is the longest cliff railway in Britain.

Towards the south of the prom is , where there is an Iron Age hillfort and a memorial to the first Duke of Wellington.  There are also the ruins of a 13th century English castle, built to keep the Welsh out!  The castle is made of the local stone from the Aberystwyth Grits Group.

Geology

The headlands to the north and south of the town are formed from the , comprising mudstones and sandstones that form rock sequences known as turbidites, which were laid down in the marine Welsh Basin. These turbidites crop out all along Ceredigion Bay.  The fine-grained sediments contain fossils called graptolites (enabling the rocks to be correlated between outcrops) and were probably deposited in deep water. We know this because shelly material, which is more typical of shallower waters, is rare.

After burial, the rocks were subjected to folding and metamorphism, then eroded so we see them at the surface today. A metamorphic , which developed due to squeezing, is seen in most of the rocks, depending on the amount of clay and position of the rocks within the fold.  Some very mudstone-rich parts have been used in the past to produce roofing ‘slates’, but the best roofing slates are from elsewhere in Wales.

A detailed description of the geology around Aberystwyth can be found in the BGS .

Beaches

Fringing the coastline along the promenade there are large expanses of beach.  Sand and in parts pebbles are exposed at low tide. The pebbles are blue-grey mudstones and paler sandstones. There are rocky platforms around the pier and Bath Rocks, where steeply dipping turbidites can be clearly seen.

Wildlife

One of Aberystwyth most spectacular natural phenomena occurs in the autumn and winter when thousands of fly around the bay and roost under the pier at night. The are known as murmurations and some spectacular synchronised flying can be seen as the starlings ‘swarm dance’.

Safety information

Do not walk near the cliffs, where rockfalls can occur without warning. Take care on the rocky outcrops, as algae, marine plants and mud make these areas very slippery. The steeply dipping outcrops are also a hazard. Always check tide times before venturing out on the rocky outcrops.

About the author

The Farne Islands and the Holy Island of Lindisfarne lie off the coast of Northumberland in north-east England. They are formed from the rocks of the , which also forms the outcrops of rock that Bamburgh and Dunstanburgh castles and parts of Hadrian Wall are built on. The Whin Sill Complex continues underground beneath large parts of the region, including the offshore North Sea.

Geology

The Whin Sill Complex is an example of a type of igneous intrusion called a sill. Sills are intrusive rocks that are emplaced concordant with the bedding of the rocks that surround it. Contrast this with a dyke, which cuts across pre-existing bedding.

The complex is made of quartz-dolerites or quartz-microgabbros that have been dated to 301 to 294 million years old. They were intruded into the surrounding rock when magma welled up in cracks in the Earth crust as tectonic plates moved over millions of years. The magma slowly cooled and crystallised to form the massive sill.

The Farne Islands

The Farne Islands are an archipelago of between 15 and 20 islands (depending on the height of the tide) lying approximately five miles north-east of the village of Seahouses. The island of Inner Farne is the largest at 16 acres and is the closest to the mainland. They are formed from an outcrop of the Whin Sill Complex and were once connected to the mainland. Sea levels have risen following the end of the last ice age, approximately 10 000 years ago, and the limestone that lies between the Farne Islands and the mainland has been eroded away by the sea.

Today there is no permanent population on the islands, although rangers from the National Trust are frequently present; the lighthouses all became automated towards the end of the twentieth century. However, the islands have previously been home to various monks and hermits, including the saints Cuthbert and Aidan, and lighthouse-keepers and their families. This includes who, along with her lighthouse-keeper father William, rescued seven survivors from a shipwreck in 1838.

There are thousands of other residents on the islands, however: they are home to many different species of seabirds and a large colony of grey seals. Thousands more birds also come here in the summer to breed or use the islands as a stopping-off point during migration, whilst the seals give birth to their pups here every autumn.

At the time of writing (2023) the Farne Islands were closed to the public due to the risk of bird flu, which badly affected the bird population in 2022. Check the for information about the islands’ re-opening. You can still take a tour of the islands by boat.

The Holy Island of Lindisfarne

To the north of the Farne Islands lies the Holy Island of Lindisfarne. This is not a true island as it is connected to the mainland for about 12 hours a day by a causeway that is covered and uncovered by the tides. You should always to make sure you don’t get trapped in your car by the incoming tide, or on the island itself if you need to be somewhere in a hurry!

You can also make the crossing on foot, following the ancient that is marked out by wooden poles across the shifting sand and mud. Again you must be mindful of the tides; it is best to set off around two hours before low tide.

There are two outcrops of the Whin Sill Complex on Holy Island, although they are actually an offshoot of the main Whin Sill itself and are formed by a dyke that runs across the southern part of the main island. The eastern outcrop is known as The Heugh and lies just south of Lindisfarne Priory. On the rocky shore at the bottom of The Heugh you can find the contact between the hard, more uniform-looking, igneous rock of the dyke and the surrounding limestone rocks of the early Carboniferous . The limestone contains numerous fossils of brachiopods and orthocones. 

The other outcrop of the Whin Sill Complex on Holy Island is topped by Lindisfarne Castle. The castle was originally built in the sixteenth century as an outpost against potential invasions from Scotland. Once Scotland and England were unified under King James I of England/VI of Scotland, it was used to protect the small harbour and eventually became a lookout for coastguards. In the early twentieth century, it was bought by the owner of Country Life magazine and renovated to become a country home. It was subsequently purchased the National Trust in 1944 and is now open to the public.

The northern part of Holy Island is formed from the Alston Formation; the limestone here (the ) was known for its purity. In the nineteenth century it was quarried and processed in lime kilns near the castle to produce quicklime, which was then exported to Scotland. The kilns still stand and the remains of the jetties where the quicklime was loaded onto ships can be found on the shore to the south of the castle.

Safety

Always before visiting or leaving Holy Island. Up-to-date times are posted at both ends of the causeway and around the island.

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About the author

Lina Hannaford

The River Trent is a highly active river that has carved and shaped the regional landscape of Nottinghamshire for thousands of years. In numerous places, it gently cuts its banks and provides fresh outcrops of rock, which can be seen in the village of Radcliffe on Trent.

Cliff walk

This small village has some lovely scenery, including a cliff walk that runs alongside the river. It offers great views north towards the city of Nottingham and is worth a visit for these alone.

There are a couple of paths that branch off from the cliff walk which lead to a weir in the river. These paths, though functional, are not as well maintained or sturdy as the main cliff path. Please make sure you assess the conditions before venturing on these paths, good footwear combined with caution will never go out of fashion here.

It obvious when you’re getting close to your destination due to the white noise of the river gushing over the weir. Almost exactly adjacent to the weir, in one of the river banks, you can see a relatively good example of the local sedimentary rocks called the Mercia Mudstone Group.

What the rocks tell us

Firstly, you’ll see that the rocks have a variety of colours: pinky-reds, grey-greens, yellow-reds and even bright white. These colours are often arranged in horizontal layers. The rock itself is comprised of a mixture of mudstones and siltstones (mainly pinky-red and grey-green), very fine-grained sandstones (mostly yellow-red) and gypsum (white). 

Whilst the small cliff looks like it is made of lots of horizontal layers, there are several more subtle features to find, including some ancient ‘fossilised’ ripples.  These are most easily seen in the bits of rocks that have fallen onto the ground and look exactly like any sand ripple you’ve ever seen at the beach, but made of rock.

The character and composition of these layers allow us to work out information about how they were deposited and formed.  The rocks in the river bank were originally deposited in a generally hot and arid landscape that had occasional or ‘ephemeral’ small lakes and ponds, likely caused by rainfall, that formed and dried up again repeatedly. The environment may have looked very similar to parts of modern central Australia. 

Mineralisation — gypsum and halite

The gypsum bands are very interesting and are somewhat separate from the rest of the story of the other sediments. Gypsum is the mineral name for hydrated calcium sulphate, a type of salt, and it is both formed from and dissolved by water. If you look closely, you can see the gypsum layers may look horizontal, but they bend upwards or downcut into adjacent layers in places. This relationship tells us that the gypsum must have occurred after the other (mudstone, sandstone and siltstone) layers were deposited.

The gypsum actually grew within the layers some (unknown) time after the other sediments were deposited, likely after the original sediments formed into rock. The gypsum isn’t the only evidence of a salt at the outcrop; some strange, small coin-sized ‘cubes’ can be seen on some layers. Again they are best seen on blocks that have fallen from the outcrop.  These cubes are often referred to as ‘hoppers’ and formed due to the presence of another type of salt called halite, which is the very same salt you have on your dinner table — sodium chloride.

Unfortunately, the halite is long gone, but the evidence of its presence remains. The halite, which has a wonderful cubic mineral shape, formed just underground in this dry environment. It was then likely dissolved away by percolating water, leaving behind hundreds of small, cube-shaped hollows. Over time, as the layers compacted, the surrounding muds, silts and sands would have been squashed into these hollows, using them like blacksmith would use a mould for casting molten metal. The result is that the sediments took on the shape of the now-vanished halite crystals.

The technical name for these features is ‘pseudomorphs of mudstone/siltstone/sandstone after halite’. See if you can find some of these features, though please don’t pull away anything from the rock outcrop or use a geological hammer on the cliffs. There are always plenty of fallen blocks on the ground and these are fair game!

Be careful!

The rocks here are naturally a little weak and you should be cautious not to stand under any overhangs in the small 2 to 3 m-high cliff, as rocks do fall occasionally. Even from a distance much can be seen of the rocks in the river-bank cliff. Please also be aware there are risks associated with the river, please stay well back from the river edge and do not enter the water.  Be mindful of weather conditions and deteriorating paths, especially branches off from the main cliff walk. River banks are constantly evolving landscapes and some of the routes may have changed since the time of writing.

About the author

In the heart of England are tracts of ancient woodland, rolling hills and craggy knolls. One such area is . The rocks that crop out on Beacon Hill are some of the oldest rocks in England and Wales and formed when fine, volcanic ash settled in an ocean some 600 million years ago, in the Precambrian Period. Similar volcanic rocks are also seen in nearby Bradgate Park. The grey-green rocks, best exposed at the summit of the hill, are hard and resistant to erosion, which is why the hill has survived as an upland area.

There are three signposted walks from the car park in Woodhouse Eaves village. The summit walk takes you uphill through ancient woodland to heathland, with a steep climb to the summit on a made path.

At the summit, the craggy outcrops have clear horizontal lines, which are the bedding planes. They indicate the surface of deposition of the volcanic dust on the seabed millions of years ago. The rocks also show a near-vertical ‘cleavage’ and the rocks split easily along these surfaces. The cleavage was caused by metamorphism (heat and pressure) when the rocks were compressed and folded many millions of years ago.

The rocks of Beacon Hill form a geological structure called an anticline, which is a fold in the rocks where the beds slope downwards from the summit. See if you can spot crags with beds that dip away from the summit.

At the summit there are spectacular views of Leicestershire and plenty of benches to admire it from. You might also see various livestock, including English longhorn cattle, Hebridean sheep and alpacas.

At the car park, don’t miss the rhododendron labyrinth, which is a wooden boardwalk that runs through thick and twisted rhododendrons. Look out for the hand-carved sculptures. There is also a native tree collection (part of the National Forest) and a natural play area including a log train, a hazel maze, log towers and sculptures. Wooden chainsaw sculptures occur around the park and are produced locally. The car park also hosts a small café and toilets.

Getting there

The is located off Breakback Road (LE12 8TA). There is also an upper car park with easy access to the summit (LE12 8SP).

Important

• Keep dogs under control at all times and clean up after your dog
• Take all litter home
• Do not pick plants

Further information

About the author