Yorkshire highlights

Having good friends in Yorkshire who are both proud of the area in which they live and generous with their time gifted us with fantastic local insights including some hidden natural wonders.

Some of the natural highlights included:

Plumpton Rocks

Plumpton Rocks is a cluster of gritstone (much like Sydney Sandstone) boulders that in the 1750’s were transformed into a celebrated landscape garden with a man made lake. Now the garden has largely been allowed to return to its natural state and is a mixture of forest, natural rock formations and moss covered crumbling architecture.

We visited on a day when it was technically closed so we had the rocks all to ourselves and took our time to wander around the lake and enjoy the scenery.

Brimham Rocks

Brimham Rocks is on one of the highest hills of the Yorkshire moors and provides views almost to the east coast, the lakes district and beyond Sheffield. Many millions of years of erosion and weathering has created rock formations of stacked boulders.

Malham Cove

Malham Cove is a curved 70m high limestone escarpment near the village of Malham, North Yorkshire. It was formed by a waterfall carrying meltwater from glaciers at the end of the last Ice Age more than 12,000 years ago. The top of the Cove limestone has formed a natural pavement criss-crossed with little crevices filled with plant life. The escarpment is a popular venue for rock climbers. The overhang of the cliff face provides some real challengers even for experienced climbers.

Access to the Cove is through farm land on a pedestrian right of way but beware of the cows. As we neared the gate our progress was blocked by cows who nudged us off the path. We took evasive action scrambling over the dry stone wall to the safety of the road.

Gordale Scar

Gordale Scar is a deep gorge and waterfall approximately 1.5km from Malham Cove. Torrents of glacial meltwater that flowed over it cut down through faults in the rock. Successive ice ages have carved it deeper and deeper over thousands of years. Water still flows down the Scar and locals rock hop and scramble up the waterfall to the top. We had planned to do this but heavy rains overnight meant the flow of water was too great and many of the rocks were covered by a torrent of water. Our planned walk was altered and we headed for the nearby Malham Inn for a pint just as the rain started.

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