Above Twisleton Scars

The Legacy of Retreating Ice

A stroll behind St. Leonards' Church at Chapel-le-Dale leads to Britain's most spectacular limestone pavement.

Twisleton Scars on the west side of Chapel-le-Dale, where different strengths in the beds of Great Scar Limestone have resulted in a series of steps in the landscape.

The Scars are bissected by a series of faults. They form a beautiful panorama.

St. Leonard's Church, Chapel-le-Dale - rustic and perfect in the landscape.

Behind the church are windows into the normally subterranean Chapel Beck.   This is Jingle Pot - one example, and so called because of the noises pebbles make when thrown into the depths.

Nearby is the famous Weathercote Cave - where Chapel Beck plunges to basement level out of one flooded cave - and into another.  The magnificent waterfall emerges behind the great wedged boulder of Mohammed's Coffin.

Weathercote Cave: note the variety of faces in the rock, overlooking the awe-inspiring scene.

As we walk up the lane past the church, we encounter the eerie statue, created by Charles L'Anson.

The plaque says it all.   The Hurtle Pot Boggart getting a honourable mention.

Alternative view of the Statue.

Whernside looks great as we move onto the plateau of Scales Moor.

Typical Dales limestone walling.

Gritstone boulder - one of hundreds of erratics resting on the limestone pavements, left behind by the ice retreat 11,000 years ago.

The pavements become ever more spectacular, as does the backdrop.

Ingleborough towers over the landscape.

My two obliging daughters add a sense of scale.

The pavements of Scales Moor.

Towards the north end, away from the North Craven Fault, the clints are larger - being more broken towards the fault line.

Limestone sculpture.

Beautifully weather-worn sandstone erratic.

Looking across Chapel-le-Dale at the  old quarry exposing the basement rocks beneath the Great Scar Limestone.

The basement rocks exposed.

These rocks are 500 million years old!

Ingleborough sits on a massive plinth of Great Scar Limestone - laid down in a tropical sea 340 million years ago.  What a view this is - the best of the mountain in my opinion.

I can never quite decide on the best photograph.  Just one awesome place. 

Sunlight catches the limestone superbly.

Boulder clay deposited by the glacier - smothers the pavements to the extreme north of the plateau.

He was having none of it!

Twisleton Scars: the pavement lie on top, and Whernside can be seen popping up on the right.