What a fantastic day of geological discovery we had on our Rockwatch field trip to Gamelands Stone Circle in Cumbria!
We began by exploring the prehistoric stone circle, where almost all the stones are made from distinctive Shap Granite. With Shap Granite Quarry visible in the surrounding landscape, it was a great opportunity to take a closer look at this beautiful pinkish granite and think about where the stones came from, how they reached Gamelands and why they might have been chosen to create the circle thousands of years ago.
Then it was time for fossil hunting! We headed up onto the surrounding limestone hillside and explored the fossil-rich outcrops and small quarries, searching for evidence of the creatures that lived here when this part of Britain was covered by a warm Carboniferous sea.
The area is known for brachiopods, corals and other fascinating fossils, and our fossil hunters certainly did lots of enthusiastic searching and scrambling across the grassy hillside to try to find their own hoard.
A big thank you to Audrey Brown for leading us and sharing her knowledge, and to all the young geologists and families who joined us for a wonderful day exploring Cumbria’s rocks, fossils and landscapes.
