environment of the Magnesian Limestone area Limestone Magnesian the of environment All maps © Crown copyright 2014. All rights reserved. Licence number 100042893. number Licence reserved. rights All 2014. copyright Crown © maps All David Lawrence and Elizabeth Pickett. Illustrations © Elizabeth Pickett. Elizabeth © Illustrations Pickett. Elizabeth and Lawrence David Making a positive difference to the unique the to difference positive a Making Design and production © Marcus Byron. Additional geological information and advice advice and information geological Additional Byron. Marcus © production and Design Durham Heritage Group and the National Trust for their support. their for Trust National the and Group Heritage Durham We would like to thank Durham County Council, Durham Wildlife Trust, East East Trust, Wildlife Durham Council, County Durham thank to like would We on Facebook and Twitter. and Facebook on Find out more at www.groundwork.org.uk/northeast or follow us us follow or www.groundwork.org.uk/northeast at more out Find Changing Places, Changing Lives – one green step at a time. time. a at step green one – Lives Changing Places, Changing (see over flap). over (see This project has been coordinated by Groundwork NE & Cumbria; Cumbria; & NE Groundwork by coordinated been has project This forming ‘concretions’ ‘concretions’ forming www.nationaltrust.org.uk/durhamcoast cliff. Some of the beds have been affected by chemical changes changes chemical by affected been have beds the of Some cliff. forever, for everyone. To find out more visit visit more out find To everyone. for forever, You can see some of these beds in the horizontal layers in the the in layers horizontal the in beds these of some see can You preserve and protect the Durham coast and other special places – – places special other and coast Durham the protect and preserve along this route is owned by the National Trust, a charity working to to working charity a Trust, National the by owned is route this along layers on an ancient sea floor. Geologists call these layers ‘beds’. ‘beds’. layers these call Geologists floor. sea ancient an on layers 268131 or email [email protected]. Much of the land land the of Much [email protected]. email or 268131 The lime-rich mud from which the rock was formed built up in in up built formed was rock the which from mud lime-rich The For more information on the Durham Heritage Coast call 03000 03000 call Coast Heritage Durham the on information more For Europe and perhaps in the world. the in perhaps and Europe or email [email protected]. email or Please report any issues with paths on this route on 03000 265342 265342 03000 on route this on paths with issues any report Please here in Durham contains shapes and textures that are unique in in unique are that textures and shapes contains Durham in here found in many places on our planet. The Magnesian Limestone Limestone Magnesian The planet. our on places many in found Billingham 68 Limestones of different origin, chemical make up and age are are age and up make chemical origin, different of Limestones A Aycliffe Newton Bedded down Bedded 19 A Sedgefield Auckland Bishop & start of walk of start & Centre to Nose’s Point Point Nose’s to Shopping Dock HARTLEPOOL Byron Place Byron 5 A167 A1 181 A A690 (M) Peterlee A182 DURHAM P 82 A1 le-Spring P 4 Marina Houghton- house house Seaham Limekilns Lifeboat le-Street Chester- 19 A Limestone Plateau Limestone A690 3 Area of Magnesian of Area Washington The Waterside The ) 2 limestone A1(M A1231 SUNDERLAND Concretionary P of the England Coast Path in County Durham County in Path Coast England the of North Terrace North A 4-mile walk from Nose’s Point along part part along Point Nose’s from walk 4-mile A North pier North limestone 1 Concretionary UPON-TYNE P NEWCASTLE- South Shields South curious rocks curious limekilns and the restored lifeboat house. lifeboat restored the and limekilns 5 Coxhoe Waterside information centre and cafe, a fine row of of row fine a cafe, and centre information Waterside 4 Nose’s Point, Seaham Point, Nose’s Limestone beds with many types of concretions, The The concretions, of types many with beds Limestone 3 Tunstall Hills Tunstall pier. Worth seeing here are exposures of Magnesian Magnesian of exposures are here seeing Worth pier. Cliffs, caves and caves Cliffs, 2 Sunderland City Geotrail and Mowbray Park sensory trail trail sensory Park Mowbray and Geotrail City Sunderland Park in town or down at the harbour next to the north north the to next harbour the at down or town in Park 1 Marsden cliffs and Souter and cliffs Marsden geology of the Magnesian Limestone Plateau. Limestone Magnesian the of geology out some unusual rocks down at the harbour. the at down rocks unusual some out This walk is one of five we have produced which introduce the unique unique the introduce which produced have we five of one is walk This a cake at one of the local cafes be sure to seek seek to sure be cafes local the of one at cake a and celebrate their local area. local their celebrate and Seaham itself. As well as enjoying a coffee and and coffee a enjoying as well As itself. Seaham Magnesian Limestone and to enable communities to learn about, enjoy enjoy about, learn to communities enable to and Limestone Magnesian people to conserve the landscape, wildlife and rich heritage of the the of heritage rich and wildlife landscape, the conserve to people 4 Walk Geotrail. Limestone Magnesian A After your walk, try and find time to visit visit to time find and try walk, your After The Limestone Landscapes Partnership is working with many different different many with working is Partnership Landscapes Limestone The A walk on the Magnesian Limestone plateau Curious concretions This walk is one of five self-guided trails that help you number of hills in the area, including Beacon Hill (visited on You can see a variety of shapes and patterns in the exposed to explore East Durham, South Tyneside and Sunderland this walk) and Tunstall Hills near Sunderland. 3 A large rocks at Seaham harbour. Some of these are the result of and find out how the geology has influenced the area’s variety of animals lived on and within the reef. Tiny fragments complex chemical reactions and erosion that have changed natural habitats and the lives of local people. of shell and skeletal remains built up as lime-rich mud on the the structure of the limestones over a long period of time. sea floor. It is this limy mud that eventually became limestone. Together the walks offer a fascinating overview of the Just some of the unusual rock textures to look out for: In places fossilised shells can still be seen in the rock. many processes that shaped the landscape you see today. Left: ‘Coralline’ concretions So named because they look Introducing the geology of East Durham a bit like fossilised coral The numbers in circles show which walk is best for Below left: Canonball concretions seeing a particular geological feature. Reef Lagoon These vary enormously in scale – 310 million years ago, in the Carboniferous Period, this area the ones shown here are about Zechstein Sea the size of medium potatoes was part of a large continent that lay across the equator. Low lying tropical swamps covered the land. Dead trees and other Below: Calcinema permiana plants built up as a layer of peat, which was then buried Not a concretion, but a under layers of sand and mud. Eventually the peat hardened fossilised algae to form coal seams. The coal was mined deep beneath the Magnesian Limestone Plateau in the 19th and 20th centuries. Although most evidence of coal mining has gone, it can still be The Magnesian Limestone seen in places. 1 4 reef and a close-up showing The roots of Durham’s coal sea creatures such as seams – a tropical swamp in cone-shaped bryozoans. the Carboniferous Period In the same exposed cliff at the During periods of falling sea level, the hot arid climate harbour, look for this bed of caused the sea water to evaporate, making it much saltier. rock where you can see these Salt minerals known as evaporites built up on the sea floor. fossilised shells – the remains of creatures living here over 200 Thick salt deposits still exist deep beneath the surface further million years ago! south, but in this area they have dissolved, causing the rocks above them to collapse. 1 4 About 300 million years ago the land moved slowly further This area continued to drift north for 250 million years until it north of the equator and the climate became hotter and reached where it is today. We do not have any record of the drier. This area became a barren desert covered by sand geology of the area during that time as any rocks formed have dunes. The remains of these dunes, the ‘Yellow Sands’, are been removed by the work of rivers and seas. Some of these quarried today for building sand. 5 ‘missing’ rocks have been quarried elsewhere and brought into A large part of the desert lay beneath sea level and around the area for building stone. 2 295 million years ago, at the start of the Permian Period, Over the last 2.5 million years the climate alternated between water from the surrounding ocean flooded it to create a colder periods (‘ice ages’) and warmer periods. At times, ice shallow inland sea, known as the Zechstein Sea.