Geograph - photograph every grid square

Large limestone quarry exploiting large beds of clean limestone for iron making and lime production. The limestones are Dinantian in age (Early Carboniferous, around 350 million years old) and belong to the Chief Limestone Group.

This whole quarry mined the fourth limestone which is split into a variety of other smaller limestones.

At the time of formation Britain was around the equator, the limestones formed on a proximal inner carbonate ramp on the shores of the Lake District Island! In the quarry algal mats, corals (rugose), braciopods and other sea creatures are present. Sea level changes often meant the limestones were eroded and caves formed (think Zanzibar for an analogue). Another feature described in this quarry are the bentonite bands (clays) which are the remains of volcanic ash fall outs.