Photos

This is a photograph taken yesterday of the "limestone pavement" above Malham Cove, in the North Yorkshire moors.

For those of you who are not aware of where this is, imagine a map of Britain, this area is around 50 miles north of Manchester, and sort of in the centre between the East & West coasts.

The majority of this area is National Park, and features some of the best examples of limestone scenery in the whole of the country.

Limestone tends to be found in flat beds with many joints running across the surface (a bit like a whole series of bricks piled into a big block). The slightly acidic rainwater settles in the surface cracks and disolves the limestone, creating the cracks (or "grykes"), and leaving the blocks exposed ("clints"). As a reference for scale, each of the blocks in the foreground are around 3-4 feet wide and 2 feet deep. The cracks in between the blocks can be up to 10 feet deep, and are home to many rare plants which are protected from weather and animals. On some of the blocks, the cracks have disolved down to the plain of limestone below, which means the rocks are free-standing, and some actually move when you stand on them!!

The pavement sits on top of Malham Cove, which is a huge limestone cliff - seen here.

PP - cropped, resized, sharpened, inc contrast.