Category Archives: quarries

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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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: the Tata Shapfell kilns

Posted on December 1, 2021 by solwayshorewalker

The motorway sweeps down past the smooth rounded ‘sleeping elephants’ of the Howgill fells, down into the valley by Tebay, and then up again onto the moorland heights of Shap. Suddenly, incongruously, you see a tall vertical array of cylinders … Continue reading →

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Snippets 10: stone stoops

Posted on August 19, 2016 by solwayshorewalker

Gateposts don’t normally attract our attention, so it is easy to miss the fact that many of the ‘posts’ supporting field gates on the Solway Plain are not posts at all, but are the traditional red sandstone pillars – known … 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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Sandstone, ‘smooth as walnut turned on a lathe’

Posted on December 3, 2015 by solwayshorewalker

“Fine sandstone is quite silky, you get a crisp image, the maximum sculptural effect. With sandstone there’s no reflection of light to distort what you see.” Sky Higgins, sculptor. “Red St Bees’ is a fine-grained stone, dull red in colour… … Continue reading →

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