Between a "Rock and a Hard face" at Gardale Scar, in North Yorkshire, England
To view more of my images, of Malham, Gardale Scar & Malham Cove, please click "here" !
I would be most grateful if you would refrain from inserting images, and/or group invites; thank you!
Gordale Scar One of the jewels in the crown of the National Park, this awesome hidden gorge at Gordale has wowed visitors for hundreds of years and inspired famous artists and writers. Like Malham Cove, this impressive natural feature was formed on the Middle Craven Fault. Unlike the Cove, however, the 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 to create the deep gorge we see today. It was not formed by a giant cave collapsing as some have suggested. However, several smaller caves collapsing over the centuries probably contributed to the gorge being so deep. The water that flows over the waterfalls at the heart of the ravine is rich in dissolved limestone. This has precipitated out onto the mossy rocks to create the soft tufa screen that is such a feature at Gordale. Climbing the footpath up it damages the tufa so please avoid doing so. An alternative route is available, call into Malham National Park Centre for details. The gorge is part of our popular 'Malham Landscape Trail', and you can buy the trail leaflet at the Centre as well. We have recently engineered an accessible route up to the bottom of the gorge so that even more people can now enjoy the thrill. This is one of many such accessible routes published in our 'Miles without Stiles' booklet or you can view the accessible walks on this website here.
From Yorkshire Dales.org.uk
Malham Cove is a natural limestone formation 1 km north of the village of Malham, North Yorkshire, England. A well-known beauty spot, it is a large, curved limestone cliff at the head of a valley, with a fine area of limestone pavement at the top. Describing the cove in 1779, Thomas West said, "This beautiful rock is like the age-tinted wall of a prodigious castle; the stone is very white, and from the ledges hang various shrubs and vegetables, which with the tints given it by the bog water. & c. gives it a variety that I never before saw so pleasing in a plain rock." On the west side of the 80 metre (260 foot) high cliff face are about 400 irregular stone steps: these form part of the route of the Pennine Way and lead to an uneven limestone pavement at the top. Originally, a large waterfall flowed over the cove as a glacier melted above it. The remnant of a stream which once fell over the cliff now flows out of the lake of Malham Tarn, on the moors 2 km north of the cove. That stream now disappears underground at the aptly named 'Water Sinks', 1.5 kilometres (one mile) before its valley reaches the top of the cove. A stream of a similar size (Malham Beck) emerges from a cave at the bottom of the cove. It used to be assumed that the two streams were one and the same. However, experiments with dyes have now shown that two separate streams go underground at different locations, cross paths without mixing behind the cliff, and re-emerge a couple of kilometres apart. This shows the complexity of the system of caves behind the cliff, which is thought to be around 50,000 years old. Divers have so far explored over 1.6 km of cave passage entered from the base of the cove. The lip of the cove has been more heavily eroded than the sides, creating a curved shape. A colossal amount of water used to flow over this waterfall, which measures 80 m (260 ft) high and over 300 m (1000 ft) wide. Nowadays the underlying cave systems have a large enough capacity to swallow any flood waters before it reaches the fall. The last record of water flowing over the fall in any kind of volume dates back to a period of heavy rain in the early 19th century. The valley was formed at the end of the last ice age when the ground was frozen. The frozen ground meant that meltwater from the melting ice sheet formed a large river flowing over the surface, eroding the valley that we see today. The water from this river flowed over Malham Cove to form a huge waterfall. When the climate warmed around 12,000 years ago the ground thawed and the river in the valley disappeared underground leaving the valley dry as we see it today.
The cove, along with nearby Gordale Scar, was featured in an episode of the BBC TV series Seven Natural Wonders as one of the natural wonders of Yorkshire.
Between a "Rock and a Hard face" at Gardale Scar, in North Yorkshire, England
To view more of my images, of Malham, Gardale Scar & Malham Cove, please click "here" !
I would be most grateful if you would refrain from inserting images, and/or group invites; thank you!
Gordale Scar One of the jewels in the crown of the National Park, this awesome hidden gorge at Gordale has wowed visitors for hundreds of years and inspired famous artists and writers. Like Malham Cove, this impressive natural feature was formed on the Middle Craven Fault. Unlike the Cove, however, the 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 to create the deep gorge we see today. It was not formed by a giant cave collapsing as some have suggested. However, several smaller caves collapsing over the centuries probably contributed to the gorge being so deep. The water that flows over the waterfalls at the heart of the ravine is rich in dissolved limestone. This has precipitated out onto the mossy rocks to create the soft tufa screen that is such a feature at Gordale. Climbing the footpath up it damages the tufa so please avoid doing so. An alternative route is available, call into Malham National Park Centre for details. The gorge is part of our popular 'Malham Landscape Trail', and you can buy the trail leaflet at the Centre as well. We have recently engineered an accessible route up to the bottom of the gorge so that even more people can now enjoy the thrill. This is one of many such accessible routes published in our 'Miles without Stiles' booklet or you can view the accessible walks on this website here.
From Yorkshire Dales.org.uk
Malham Cove is a natural limestone formation 1 km north of the village of Malham, North Yorkshire, England. A well-known beauty spot, it is a large, curved limestone cliff at the head of a valley, with a fine area of limestone pavement at the top. Describing the cove in 1779, Thomas West said, "This beautiful rock is like the age-tinted wall of a prodigious castle; the stone is very white, and from the ledges hang various shrubs and vegetables, which with the tints given it by the bog water. & c. gives it a variety that I never before saw so pleasing in a plain rock." On the west side of the 80 metre (260 foot) high cliff face are about 400 irregular stone steps: these form part of the route of the Pennine Way and lead to an uneven limestone pavement at the top. Originally, a large waterfall flowed over the cove as a glacier melted above it. The remnant of a stream which once fell over the cliff now flows out of the lake of Malham Tarn, on the moors 2 km north of the cove. That stream now disappears underground at the aptly named 'Water Sinks', 1.5 kilometres (one mile) before its valley reaches the top of the cove. A stream of a similar size (Malham Beck) emerges from a cave at the bottom of the cove. It used to be assumed that the two streams were one and the same. However, experiments with dyes have now shown that two separate streams go underground at different locations, cross paths without mixing behind the cliff, and re-emerge a couple of kilometres apart. This shows the complexity of the system of caves behind the cliff, which is thought to be around 50,000 years old. Divers have so far explored over 1.6 km of cave passage entered from the base of the cove. The lip of the cove has been more heavily eroded than the sides, creating a curved shape. A colossal amount of water used to flow over this waterfall, which measures 80 m (260 ft) high and over 300 m (1000 ft) wide. Nowadays the underlying cave systems have a large enough capacity to swallow any flood waters before it reaches the fall. The last record of water flowing over the fall in any kind of volume dates back to a period of heavy rain in the early 19th century. The valley was formed at the end of the last ice age when the ground was frozen. The frozen ground meant that meltwater from the melting ice sheet formed a large river flowing over the surface, eroding the valley that we see today. The water from this river flowed over Malham Cove to form a huge waterfall. When the climate warmed around 12,000 years ago the ground thawed and the river in the valley disappeared underground leaving the valley dry as we see it today.
The cove, along with nearby Gordale Scar, was featured in an episode of the BBC TV series Seven Natural Wonders as one of the natural wonders of Yorkshire.