Limestone Pavement Country

Tuesday 16th March 2010.
          Today has been another early spring day the temperature in my garden reached 12c in the afternoon This morning I think the frogs reached their peak in numbers and vocal intensity with lots of spawning, I'll upload the pictures and video tomorrow.
   But back to today we've had a good walk over Moughton, a limestone pavement and plateau area between Ingleborough and Pen-y-ghent in the Yorkshire Dales, it's about 20 miles as the crow flies from our house. In the late spring and summer many rare plants grow in the grykes in the limestone pavement including several orchids.

This a  wonderful landscape of bare rock, the glaciers of the last ice age scraped away most of the topsoil giving it a rocky desert appearance.

              The start of the walk ..The hamlet of Wharfe in Crummack Dale                    

                                    
                                                                  Hazel catkins 

                    Moughton summit looking towards Pen-y-ghent

                                                       Looking towards Igleborough

                        In the distance our local landmark "Pendle Hill"                                

                                                       Looking north to Ribble Head

                                                     Juniper bushes grow in the grykes

                                            The vast expanse of the Limestone Pavement

                                                                         Pen-y-ghent

                                                                      Ingleborough

                                                                   Moughton Scars

         Moughton Scars with the summit of Moughton on the horizon                               

                                                       A final look back to Pen-y-ghent