The Great Whin Sill
Above is The Great Whin Sill exposed at High Cup Nick near Dufton in North Yorkshire
Having failed a geology degree several centuries ago, I am happy to say that I still find geology endlessly fascinating.
The Great Whin Sill is a major geological feature in Northern England. A sill is a band of volcanic rock which has been inserted in between older layers of rock. While the feature was once regarded as the result of one event, it now appears that there are four components to the feature. For more details of this, and to save me boring some of my readers witless, please follow the link HERE.
Heather and I had just spent a lovely weekend at Sarah and David’s house near Ullswater with all the family and decided to come home via High Force in Teesdale. This was somewhere we had never been before and somewhere I had always wanted to visit.
As you can see from the video, it’s a very impressive waterfall. This became the fifth exposure of The Great Whin Sill which we have visited, and all manage to be hugely impressive.
All the above military sites, as well as Dunstanburgh Castle, are perched on outcrops of the Great Whin Sill.
Personally, I think High Cup Nick is the most impressive feature, but, as an inspiration for music, Lindisfarne is tops:
High Force was the end of the geological part of the journey and we travelled on to Barnard Castle. Lunch in the Three Horseshoes and the obligatory visit to Chocolate Fayre.
