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Crook Burn tributary cutting through limestone NE of Viewing Hill

Whilst there are many shakeholes on the moor NE of Viewing Hill, marking the top of the limestone, the bed isn't thick enough, nor any of the streams big enough, to have formed true underground drainage in cave passages. Such small streams as do cross the limestone have cut down to form narrow valleys such as this one, seen from the old mining track which finds a convenient level course running along the top of the limestone bed. The stream soon joins Crook Burn, which in turn is tributary to the River Tees, flowing off the eastern slopes of Great and Little Dun Fell, and Cross Fell, the highest point of the Pennine chain, seen in the distance clear of cloud for about the only time on this cold blustery February day.