Limestone is a hard sedimentary rock and can create many different kinds of

features. One example of a place where there is a lot of limestone features is

Malham and The Yorkshire Dales National Park. This is a guide to help you
identify which features are which and a little extra information on how they are
each formed.

This map shows the

location of Malham Cove in
the south of the Yorkshire
Dales and the Yorkshire
Dales National Park where
most of the limestone
features are situated.
In the following part of the
guide it will be explaining
all the different limestone
features and how they are
formed.

This is an example of a limestone

pavement. Limestone pavements
are made up of clints and grykes.

Clints are solid slabs of limestone

rock which make up the main
body of the limestone pavement.

Grykes are vertical cracks in

between the clints that have been
affected by chemical weathering
making the grykes differ in size.
A swallow hole is when rain
water has eroded the
limestone rock. This means
that a stream that is
travelling over impermeable
rock will quickly disappear
into the limestone. The
swallow holes can be
several metres deep.

Resurgence is when a stream

disappears underground. The water
travels through a series of caves and
eventually reaches a level of
impermeable rock. As the water
cannot pass through the
impermeable rock, it travels along it
until it reaches the surface as a
spring.

Dry valleys were formed during the last

ice age. When the ice started melting,
the valleys were carved out over the
frozen rock. As limestone is a permeable
rock, when it thawed the water infiltrated
down leaving the dry valley above. An
example of a dry valley is Watlowes
valley above Malham Cove in the
Yorkshire Dales.
 Malham Cove is about 260 feet
high and is made of carboniferous
limestone and was formed after
the last ice age. Meltwater cut
back the cove as it fell over the
edge as a waterfall. This mainly
happened at the sides creating the
curved shape. On the top of the
cove is a limestone pavement
which is explained above.

Gordale Scar was created

during the ice age and over
time the gorge (right) and
the Gordale Scar waterfall
(far right) that you see
today were formed. The
sides of the gorge hang
over which suggests that
there was once a roof that
has caved in due to the
weight.

In the Yorkshire Dales the land is used for many different things, whether it is
farming or quarrying. The following will explain some of the land uses in the
Dales.
 The tourist board is encouraging people
to use public transport to reduce air
pollution as 93% of the visits to the
Yorkshire Dales are made in cars
resulting in traffic problems for the locals.
They are trying to stop people parking
their cars in spaces that block access,
especially to farmland.

Like most places, tourism is a vital part needed

by the Yorkshire Dales. Torism brings many jobs
to the local people with an annual income of
£50million. There is a large amount of tourists
that visit the area each year (estimated about
8.3 million) which results in many problems for
the local community as although they obtain
jobs, it is very difficult to get anywhere because
of the traffic problems.

In the Yorkshire Dales there is around

19000 residents that mostly live in
small villages.
Now there are more people buying
holiday homes in the Dales because
of the luxurious scenery. Most of the
time these are used as holiday
homes so are used only a few times
a year.
 Farming has been an important
part of the Yorkshire Dales for
centuries with 40% of the park land
devoted to farming. The park
encourages the farmers to farm in a
way that keeps the traditional look
for example using stone buildings
to retain the natural look of the
landscape. A whole 35% of the jobs
in the park rely on farming showing
how important farming is in the
Yorkshie Dales.

The Yorkshire Dales offers many sports

activities: cycling, caving (right),
climbing and walking. The picturesque
scenery and the countryside attracts
many tourists and hikers to the area.
There is 1450km of paths around the
Dales. One of the most popular walks
is the one up the three peaks and for
the more daring walkers, the pennine
way is a more challenging walk.

Quarrying is also another important

part of the Yorkshre Dales.
Nowadays there are 8 main
quarries with an annual output of
4.7 million tonnes.