Attermire Scar, Settle
Attermire Scar, Settle in the Yorkshire Dales National Park, North Yorkshire.
About 330 million years ago this area lay beneath a warm, shallow sea. The Great Scar Limestone which makes up the scars of today, was deposited in layers as tiny sea creatures died and became compacted on the sea bed. Over millions of years the limestone was buried by other deposits which formed small layers of shales and sandstones, often topped with grits. About 290 million years ago violent fractures and folding of the earth’s crust along the fault lines of the Mid and South Craven Faults which cross this area, shifted and raised the rocks above sea level. During this reshaping of the landscape the limestone rocks of the Dales were largely separated from the grits and shales of Bowland. Later during the Ice Age, huge sheets of ice eroded the layers of rock and soil above the limestone, revealing the white cliffs we see today. The scars are still liable to frost erosion and often have scree slopes of broken rock below them.