The Norber Erratics

The Norber Erratics are the finest example of glacial erratic rocks in Britain. Thanks to an unusual geological phenomenon, many of the dark ancient boulders are balanced, precariously, on white plinths of limestone, forming  natural sculptures.

The erratics are massive sandstone and slate Silurian boulders that were carried to their current location by a glacial ice sheet. They were deposited on the limestone shelf when the glaciers melted at the end of the last ice age, between 12,000 and 17,000  years ago.

The strange balancing act is the result of centuries of erosion that followed, whittling away the more vulnerable limestone, except for in the protected areas directly below the older Silurian rock. There are over a hundred of these peculiar perched erratics scattered around the slopes of Ingleborough Hill in Yorkshire Dales National Park, with the slate boulders generally found higher up the hill than the sandstone.

R5 F11 @ 25mm 1/320sec ISO 125