Cliff Rigg Quarry

It was the extensive quarrying of whinstone during the 19th and early 20th centuries that created this massive gash in Cliff Rigg. Extremely hard, this narrow wall of igneous rock was formed by molten larva protruding through the sedimentary layers and was much valued for cobble setts and in road building. It has been almost completely removed allowing the softer shales to collapse. Much of the whinstone setts from this quarry went into cobbling the streets of Leeds. In the field on the right, if you look very closely, three slight Bronze Age funerary tumuli can be made out. I wonder how many more have been lost during the quarrying activities.