Natural History

Lovers Leap

30th July 2018 by

This is a fine place to view the lower portion of Dovedale. Opposite, rising out of the ash woods, you can just make out the rock pinnacles known as the Twelve Apostles.

Pinnacles like these are made of harder bands of limestone that were left were behind after the erosion of the last Ice Age. Over the centuries since then, they have been further shaped into craggy towers by water gradually dissolving the rock or repeatedly freezing in cracks until the rock weakens and crumbles away.

Steps up to Lover’s Leap © Matt Fascione via Geograph (CC BY SA 2.0)

Lover’s Leap gets its name from a girl who attempted suicide from this high point, but was saved by her billowing skirts! The steps up to the high point were said to be built by Italian prisoners of war during World War Two.

[Read more…] about Lovers Leap

Reynard’s Cave

30th July 2018 by

Pause where you can see the natural arch of Reynard’s Cave. To find out how it formed we need to travel back to the end of the last Ice Age, around 10,000 years ago, when glacial meltwater swelled the Dove into a powerful torrent. Icy waters cut down through fissures and faults in the rock like a knife through butter. The vertical crags and pinnacles we can see from here are harder bands of limestone that the water could not cut through, but just how did these natural caves and arches form?

Reynard’s Cave © Beth via Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0)

Limestone has many joints and cracks. When acidic rainwater trickles into these joints, it dissolves and widens them into underground drainage systems, including tunnels, caves and caverns. As the river cut down through the limestone it intercepted some of these secret tunnels and caves, opening them up for the first time. Reynard’s Cave is the remnant of just such an old cavern, exposed as the Dove cut down through the limestone.

[Read more…] about Reynard’s Cave

Winnats Pass: A Tropical and Haunting Road

29th May 2018 by

‘Vale of the Winnets, Derbyshire’, T. Allom, c. 1830. [DERSR: 41551]

Look up the hill, you can see the winding and narrow road of Winnats Pass. This deep route runs between the two towering pinnacles of limestone on either side. The wind swirls and it’s no wonder that there is the legend of the pass being haunted by murdered two lovers.

When you head through Winnats Pass, it is difficult to imagine that this once would have been at the bottom of a tropical ocean. There are fossilised sea creatures in the limestone rocks which date back to 350 million years ago when this would have been a coral reef, the deep ravine forming when a large underground cave system collapsed. This cave system was created after melting glaciers wore away at the rock, allowing streams of water between the cracks as the limestone dissolved. These deepened the cracks and fissures, opening them up to create large caverns with thin roofs. When these collapsed, they formed steep sided valleys like the one here at Winnats Pass.

Don Bramwell: The archaeological artist

16th May 2018 by

You should be able to see the large entrance of Thor’s Cave up on the craggy hillside to the south. There are many other small caves hidden away around here too. Many were excavated at some stage by the Peakland Archaeological Society, under the leadership of Don Bramwell.

When most people think about the work of Don Bramwell they think about science and archaeology. But there was also a creative side to his work – finds and excavations beautifully drawn and coloured, and notebooks full of doodles and sketches.

Below is his drawing of a bear skull found at nearby Elderbush Cave in the 1940s. You can see the precision he gave to these drawings and how invaluable his talent was to aid in the recording of these sites, at a time when it was much harder to get a perfectly clear image from a camera.

Sketch of a bear skull from Elderbush Cave, Don Bramwell. PAS Collection, Buxton Museum.

Bear skull from Elderbush Cave, photographed shortly after discovery. Now on display at Buxton Museum and Art Gallery.

Schools of the Peak – Museum Challenge

4th May 2018 by

Has your school been learning about the history, geology or art of the Peak District?

Use this challenge to upload and share your work; from stories and articles to photography and artwork.

For more information, or inspiration, e-mail buxton.museum@derbyshire.gov.uk.

The Brachiopods of Parkhouse Hill

1st November 2017 by

If you’ve managed to scramble up the steep sides of Parkhouse Hill, congratulations! You are standing on the remains of a reef attol, formed around 350 million years ago in the Lower Carboniferous. The hill still reflects the shape of the reef that formed it. If you look closely at the rocky outcrops you may find fossils of various sea creatures.

This site is now a SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest) so removing fossil material is forbidden. However, the collection of JW Jackson at Buxton Museum and Art Gallery contains many specimens from this site – and the collections helps us to understand what this reef would have been like when it sat in a warm, tropical sea.

Natural History

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