"The landscape at Gait Barrows has been shaped over many thousands of years. Much of the nature reserve lies on ancient Carboniferous limestone which was laid down in warm tropical seas some 300 million years ago. With the influence of more recent mountain building periods that created mountain ranges like the Alps, this bedrock has been flexed and uplifted to give the low hills and crags of the limestone landscape that we are familiar with today. In the last Ice Age some 14,000 years ago, deep ice covered this part of Northern England and Hawes Water Basin was formed by the deeply scouring ice sheet as it passed from what today are the Cumbrian high fells to the Irish Sea. This deep trough in the limestone was then filled with groundwater to create the Hawes Water we know today. The intricate features of the limestone pavements have been shaped and modified by glacial action in the last Ice Age, and more recently by rainfall and groundwater. On the open pavements you will see wide flat blocks called clints, separated by deep fissures known as grikes. Lying on the clint surfaces are shallow gutter-like runnels and pan-like solution cups, which collect and funnel rainwater from the rock surface."
Our photos can only attempt to show the scale of the pavement. The grikes are evident in the image below..
The blocks or clints are steep sided..
It is amazing to see what grows in this seemingly inhospitable landscape..
Having Colin in the frame gives an idea of scale...
This hypericum was growing in a grike at least 60cm below the surface...
There was one more thing to delight on our visit and that was the sight of a High brown fritillary.
I'm quite sure this won't be the last time we feature this reserve because we look forward to many more visits as the seasons change.
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