3 Days in the Dales

Here, as promised, are some pics taken last weekend in the Dales..... starting with Thornton Force waterfall. Strangely I don't remember the sunshine. It must have been all that driving rain at the Norber erratics on Saturday which eclipsed it in my memory!

We did some fieldsketching at close quarters...

..and posed for a team photo...

Then it was on to Chapel Le Dale with its barns and walls scenery ...overlooked by the summit of Ingleborough Saturday morning saw us at Malham Cove before climbing the 417 steps to the limestone pavement on top.
...and our first sight of those clints and grykes!

...and here they are at at closer quarters ahead of team photo 2......
The sun came out briefly in Watlowes dry valley.... ..very briefly. It was gone by the time we got to the top and took in the view!From there it was on down to Gordale Scar... where the depths of the gorge inspired Tolkein's vision of Helm's Deep
and after all that walking, there was more mental exercise in the evening! and more limestone pavement on Sunday... Grikey... it's a long way down!

And here's the shot of the Ribblehead viaduct that delayed me getting back to the bus....... my picture of the weekend. It's a bit of an optical illusion - the 'sky' in the distance is actually sunshine on a distant hillside and the whole shot is foreshortened with a zoom lens.

And finally, despite lucrative offers of work from the BBC... Mr Foulds and I have decided to stick to our day jobs!!

White Scar Cave

I have just discovered that White Scar Cave which we will be visiting this week when the second Higher group are in the Yorkshire Dales, now has a new website....Click on the image above to link directly to it.

Another trip to the Dales

Having been to the Yorkshire Dales on Higher fieldwork about ten times in the last eight years, I thought it was about time I had a weekend there with my family. Unfortunately, I managed to leave my camera battery at home ! However, I did have my little Flip video recorder and so can upload a couple of bits of footage from that.

The first is on the limestone pavement above Malham Cove..

This one shows a view in Upper Wharfedale....

Last weekend in the Dales....

A few pics to remind you of what we did.....

En route to Thornton Force waterfall

Limestone pavement at the top of Malham Cove

Joints and bedding planes.......

Down into Watlowes.......

Up Watlowes......!
Gordale Scar.....

Solution hollows and runnels in the making......

Working hard at 9pm!!


Scar Close and Ribblehead viaduct - an iconic Yorkshire Dales view...

And a bit of video showing the underground waterfall in White Scar cave..

Are you remembering...?

....that I am assuming you have done the work set on Carboniferous Limestone.

Do you know your clints from your grykes, your stalactites from your stalagmites and your swallow holes from your resurgences?

If not, remember that I won't be teaching it again this week but I will be pausing just long enough on Tuesday to find out how much you can recall!

You are strongly advised to follow up all the limestone links from the recent posting and to get into the relevant pages in your textbook.

Limestone postings

As we are about to embark on a few weeks of work on Carboniferous Limestone scenery and the Yorkshire Dales, I thought I would make it easy for you to track down all the postings on limestone which are already on the blog. There is a lot of very good materials contained within these postings and you would be well advised to follow them up....

The largest expanse of limestone in the world

Yorkshire Dales fieldtrip November 2007

Limestone cave danger

Limestone Links

Yorkshire Dales Fieldtrip March 2007

Out of Oblivion

Just to whet your appetite

Grikey!

Limestone Landscapes

What's old, grey and cracked?

Yorkshire Dales fieldtrip November 2006