… so I didn’t venture far; instead, just bagging Roseberry Topping and picking up Cliff Rigg on the way back. Cliff Rigg has a quarry that has been the subject of my posts on several occasions.
This ridge is part of the Cleveland Dyke, a tough volcanic rock that forcefully juts through the much older sedimentary formations surrounding it. Forged some 58 million years ago by a volcanic eruption near the Isle of Mull, it outcrops in various places between there and Whitby. Wherever it emerges, this hard rock was excavated primarily for the paving setts and road construction. Locally, it goes by the name of Whinstone, owing to the frequent occurrence of gorse, or whin, in the vicinity of its outcrops. A substantial portion of the Whinstone setts hewn from this quarry was used in cobbling the streets of Leeds.
The extensive quarrying of this igneous rock in the 19th and early 20th centuries has left behind this colossal cavity where the complete extraction of the hard rock has led to the collapse of the softer shales. Operated by Messrs. Winn, the quarry ceased operations around 1918. Nonetheless, in the seventies, there was a resurgence of activity with the stone being crushed for road surfacing.
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