Category Archives: geology

Protecting the coast: limestone rock armour

Posted on November 18, 2022 by solwayshorewalker

A local Cumberland councillor, who sits on the Board of the cross-border Solway Firth Partnership, often refers to the Cumbrian coast as being the ‘soft side’ of the Firth, in contrast to the rockier Scottish, side. And once you have … Continue reading →

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Wandering walls in limestone country

Posted on October 17, 2022 by solwayshorewalker

Dry stone wallers need to be pragmatists, building around or over problem areas, or incorporating boulders too big to move. At Bents, near Newbiggin-on-Lune on the edge of the Westmorland Dales, red sandstone and pale limestone are strikingly juxtaposed.  Huge … Continue reading →

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Rocks and patterns: Fleswick Bay

Posted on June 28, 2022 by solwayshorewalker

Whatever the weather or state of the tide, Fleswick Bay never disappoints. Sheltered within the two arms of the St Bees headlands, it is an anomaly on the Cumbrian Solway coast – tall cliffs, caves, rocky platforms pitted with deep … Continue reading →

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Clints Crags. An intermittent diary of a limestone pavement

Posted on February 1, 2022 by solwayshorewalker

Clints Crags are part of a limestone complex not far from where I live (see elsewhere on this blog). The complex has three disused quarries, limestone outcrops, sinkholes, drystone walls in various levels of disrepair, and limestone pavement. The pavement … Continue reading →

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Haematite in Eskdale

Posted on December 7, 2021 by solwayshorewalker

On the first weekend in October the annual ‘Keswick’ Show and Sale of Herdwick sheep is held in Mitchell’s Livestock Mart in Cockermouth. Our tup ‘Bonzo’ had been accepted for official registration in the breed’s Stock Book: his appearance – … Continue reading →

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Limestone: Death assemblages

Posted on November 23, 2021 by solwayshorewalker

The boulders are the fossilised graveyard of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of the shells of brachiopods, that lived then died about 300 million years ago. These tangled remains of former lives are what geologists call a ‘death assemblage’ [1]. A variety … Continue reading →

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Limestone in the Lake District: an Introduction

Posted on November 22, 2021 by solwayshorewalker

During the third lockdown, at the start of 2021, I re-visited some limestone kilns, a short walk from where I live. Coincidentally, I’d been re-reading some of Norman Nicholson’s poems and one in particular, The Seven Rocks, kept drawing me … Continue reading →

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Snippets 8: A non-conformist on the shore

Posted on April 18, 2016 by solwayshorewalker

‘Brockram’ and ‘breccia’: the first word suggests something that is solid and long-lasting, the other has a hint of transience, of frippery. But Brockram is a form of breccia; it looks like a congealed and lumpy mess of porridge that … Continue reading →

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