Greenhow Geology Trail, Greenhow Introduction Map This walk will take you on a journey back in time from the present day, to the Ice Age, then to tropical conditions 300-350 OS Explorer 298: million years ago where you can discover fossils from the tropical seas and forests. You can look down 100m into the inside of the hill from the Coldstones Cut and then drop right down into the valley where you see the impact of man’s search for lead and fluorspar. You can also look for crystals of your own in the material the miners threw away as waste, before climbing back up Distance/Time the hill to the mining village of Greenhow where again the geology has been greatly disturbed by the miners. In fine weather the 3.5 miles (5km) last section gives good views across Nidderdale and looks at the remnants of the local lime producing industry. 2-3 hours Starting Point Walk route The walk begins from Toft Gate car park P Parking at Greenhow. Grid ref SE129644.

8 Signs Terrain This is a moderate route which follows 7 rough footpaths so hiking boots/ strong 8 6 shoes are advisable. 9 5 Useful Information 2 MILES • This walk is mostly above 300 metres 4 and may take you 2-3 hours if you 3 stop to explore the geology. 10 P • Please be aware that weather 12 conditions can change and that the 11 temperature here is often several 1 degrees cooler than in Pateley Bridge. Warm, waterproof clothing is 2 recommended. 8.5 MILES • DANGER: Keep away from old shafts or workings, these may be in a dangerous condition and could collapse.

For more free guides of walking and cycling routes in Nidderdale AONB, visit our website at nidderdaleaonb.org.uk The route The route continued The trail is marked by special signs stile at the side of the gate, again look The finer grained mudstone is can still find fragments of minerals on miners in their quest for lead. that fold down into a post when not for another imprint of a fossil tree fern commonly called shale. These these heaps. Follow the path up hill and just before The wall stone of the ‘new’ graveyard As you walk back to the start of the in use, so are not intrusive in the in a sandstone block on the stile. SIGN sediments built up in layers, the Follow the track above Cockhill Level the main road, look to the right. Here, is, however, a cut, coarse grained route, on a good day, you can look at rural landscape. There are two 3 describes the environment these sandstone and gritstone generally As you walk from Gillfield Level along to a marker post, turn left up the hill in the garden of Kipling Cottage, is gritstone probably brought from the the vista to your left. Here, hard beds exceptions; Sign 2 at the Coldstones tree ferns grew in, a similar species being permeable and the compact the path you are walking through towards another marker post above the stone housing of an old well. The quarries in Peat Lane or Pateley Bridge of sandstone can be seen in places Cut viewpoint is of a more traditional of tree fern can be found in Australia shale being impermeable. This the remains of several periods of ore you. From here walk to SIGN 9, which well took water from the Grassington in 1895 when the graveyard was forming small cliffs along the edge of form, as is Sign 11. today. characteristic means that where shale processing and smelting. In the late looks back on Jack Ass Level, one of Grit aquifer, which is contained by founded. the hillside and, in Ashfoldside Gill, the occurs at the surface the ground is 18th century there were two smelt the earliest mining tunnels in the area. the impermeable Nidderdale Shales distant mine workings and mine waste From the car park follow the footpath The limestone both at Toft Gate often badly drained. mills here, one for Gillfield Level and below. There was a reluctance to drink Just after the graveyard the large shaft tips on Prosperous and Providence towards the Coldstones Cut, turning (where you parked) and here, beneath the other for Cockhill Level, (near Follow the markers to where the from this well due to it being downhill to the left and another to the right of Vein stand out where the vegetation left at the sign just through the gate the grass, is very close to the surface Where the track meets the road, turn SIGN 8), further up the path. In later paths cross and re-join the main path from the cemetery! the road, mark where Sun Vein passes has not yet recovered. Flat, reedy, towards a small gateway in the stone and can be seen in some places to the right and look for the areas of years both levels were operated by at the top of the hill. Looking back below the road. This vein was mined almost level, terraces can be seen wall. Beyond this is SIGN 1 at the alongside, and in the track, as you boggy ground which have developed the same company and used a single towards Jack Ass Level, the Red Scar Just before the gate SIGN 11 shows from Gillfield Level at its northern where shale lies close to the surface top of a small quarry in glacial gravel, descend the hill. on the shale layers. Just after the mill. Grit beds dip along the flank of an information about Greenhow itself end and by a meandering route and distant heather moorlands form this is one of the deposits left by the stile and gate, look to the left where anticline (up fold) and by your feet are and the stone used for building. from Cockhill Level, along different where peat lies on acidic sandstones. glaciers. After following the dip of the a small drain has exposed a coarse On your right (near the bridge) is a pile shale beds disturbed by rabbits. Close veins, until it reached Sun Vein at the limestone downhill, the track turns grained gritstone with small pebbles, of slag from the last smelt mill and examination of the shale beds shows Turn left at the road and follow the southern side of the quarry. A steam If you still have energy to spare you Retrace your steps to the main to the left and you should be able to SIGN 5. Follow the track downhill further on to the left a flue led up to a that these are dipping in the same path on the left side of the road. As engine was used here to pump water can explore the unique lime kiln by footpath and climb up to the find limestone with crinoids in the again looking out for the boggy flatter chimney on the hill. manner as the Red Scar Grit. you walk along the road note the line out of the lower levels to allow the the car park. You will be able to see Coldstones Cut viewpoint. From SIGN small exposures cut for wall stone and areas. of shafts running across the fields to mine to be deepened. Sun Vein was more of the Toft Gate Limestone (with 2 you can see that quarrying has stone for the track. SIGN 4 shows As you follow the path upwards, below As you walk up the hill you pass back the left and another complex of mine a very productive vein and is visible crinoids) which was quarried here for exposed the rocks in the centre of the modern survivors of this species. The At SIGN 6, looking downstream, you you to the right, are the remains of onto the gritstone which can be seen shafts across the road on the right. from the Coldstones Cut viewpoint making lime. hill. Here you can also see where the track itself is now following the top can see the shale beds exposed above bouse teams’ which once housed the in several places. As you climb over These shafts provided haulage routes where it runs through the quarry. glacial sediments have penetrated edge of the limestone and, over the Brandstone Beck where they have ore waiting for the smelter. the stile you can see that the material and access to the many veins mined deep into the Carboniferous limestone wall, are sandstones. Look out for the been cut through by fast flowing melt used to build the walls here is all from Cockhill Level. Cross the road just after the water and the information boards describe sandstone blocks in the wall which water streams to form a deep valley. Follow the path to SIGN 8, and, if the gritstone and sandstone. tower and go through a metal gate, the formation of the rocks in the shows that sandstone bedrock is very A small sandstone bed can be seen season is right, look for the flowers The walls give an indication of the turning left along the quarry perimeter quarry itself and the mineral veins close by. above the shale. This is also a good that are special in this area. Mountain Walk up hill to where a large shaft can stone close to the surface and as you so you can continue the walk keeping which cross it. viewpoint to see the huge tips of pansy and thyme are limestone plants clearly be seen on the left alongside walk up the road note the change out of the path of traffic. The delta, which fanned out over mining waste that now fill the base of and leadwort thrives on lead mining the track. This large shaft is the first from gritstone to limestone walling From the Coldstones Cut walk back the limestone, consisted of pebbles, the valley. The coarser gritstone above waste where other plants die. shaft on Waterhole Vein and the size just before the graveyard. The Continue across the quarry entrance down the hill, look out for the imprint coarser sands, finer sands and muds. the waste was quarried by the miners of the tips surrounding it indicate the limestone walls behind the graveyard and follow the path to SIGN 12, near of a fossil tree fern in one of the These consolidated to form repeated for buildings and to support the Cockhill Level was the main horse considerable depth of the shaft. and continue along the roadside after an old lime kiln on the right. The first sandstone boulders at the bottom of sequences of gritstones, sandstones, weaker ground at the mine entrances. level in the area and its tunnels led it. This limestone is similar to that seen limestone quarry here was for the the track. and mudstones. Gritstone is a local into about 10 miles of interconnected Carry on up the path and through at Toft Gate near the beginning of the production of lime, this kiln may date name for a very coarse sandstone As you follow the track to SIGN 7 you passages. You might want to walk on the gate, then walk up the hill on the walk, with relatively thin beds. You back to 1800. The aerial photo on the Cross the minor road and go back often containing pebbles. can see the stone lined entrance of an the huge pile of waste to your right right to SIGN 10 and look at the line might be able to spot some crinoids in sign shows the area in the 1970s; note through the car park. Cross the B6265, old lead mine, (Gillfield Level), is close to get an impression of the amount of shafts to the east and west along the walls as you walk past, but please the remains of mineral workings to the looking out for traffic, and climb the to another pile of mining waste. You of material that was moved by the Waterhole Vein. do not remove any stones. west of the quarry. The geological background The hard rocks of Greenhow are all limestone. This top limestone is Millions of years followed these penetration of mineralising fluids and Carboniferous in age and were formed distinctive, being formed mainly of events and the climate changed as the crystallisation of vein minerals in 300-350 million years ago in a tropical fragments of fossil crinoids, and was the land was moved slowly north cracks in the rocks. environment. The limestone which again followed by the deposition of by the effects of plate tectonics and formed in the reef bounded sea, is sandstones and shales. continental drift. Sediments from In the more recent geological past, more than 100m thick and this depth the following eras were deposited approximately 2.5 million years can be seen from the viewpoint at the These sandstones and shales on top of those we see today but ago, this area cooled sufficiently for Coldstones Cut. represent sediments washed into a subsequent earth movements, glacial ice sheets to form. These were huge delta which eventually covered followed by millions of years of not continuous but advanced and The thin beds of shale at the top of most of . The river which fed erosion removed these younger retreated for more than 2 million the limestone indicate that mud was it must have been of a similar size to rocks and exposed the Carboniferous years with some periods between the being washed off the land. Above the Mississippi today, and carried large sequence that had been buried deep glaciations being warmer than the the limestone are beds of sandstone volumes of mud and sand from a land below them. These earth movements climate in Yorkshire today. and shale followed by a return to area to the north. created fractures which allowed the