Back from England and Germany

I have had a very good small break in England and this weekend I was in Hamburg to visit my business partner.

In England we had some tours, to the Chevin (near Otley), to Leeds (saw the movie the Golden Compass), and to Brimham Rocks.

The Chevin

The southern flank of the Wharfe valley which lies above Otley is known as The Chevin a term that has close parallels to the welsh term "Cefn", meaning ridge and may be a survival of the ancient cumbric language.

The Chevin is largely covered in attractive old woodland and heathland. It is a part of the Carboniferous Millstone grit group. A Roman road ran along the top of the Chevin, part of the road that linked Eboracum (York), Calcaria (Tadcaster) and Olicana (Ilkley), perhaps on the same route as the modern road, Yorkgate, or perhaps about 800m to the south.

The highest point of the Chevin, Surprise View, reaches 282 metres (925 ft) at grid reference SE204442. This point offers extensive views of Otley and Wharfedale, and has an adjacent car park. It is the site of a beacon, and a cross is erected at Easter.

The name comes from the Brythonic 'Cefyn', 'Cefn' or 'Cefu' meaning a 'ridge', or 'ridge of high land'. The root name informs other hills, such as The Cheviot in Northumberland, and the Cévennes in France.

Brimham Rocks

In the beginning ...
320 million years ago, a huge river washed down grit and sand from granite mountains in northern Scotland and Norway. A delta formed, covering half of Yorkshire. Increasing layers of grit and sand, along with rock crystals of feldspar and quartz, built up to form the tough sandstone known as Millstone Grit, the exposed sections of which can be seen today at Brimham Rocks.

A feature of the rocks is their cross-bedding. As the water from the river flowed, it created bedforms such as ripples or dunes on the floor of the channel. Sediment was deposited on the downcurrent side of these bedforms at an angle - not horizontally. The layering is inclined and dips in the direction the water was moving.

Shaping
Most of the rocks owe their bizarre shapes to erosion during and after the Devensian glaciation. For example, Idol Rock was most likely formed just after the last glaciation when the land lacked any plant cover. Here, sand-blasting at ground level wore away the softer layers of the rock producing a tiny plinth with a massive top. Freeze-thaw action on the joints and bedding planes have shaped many of the tors such as the Dancing Bear.