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Viewing swaag.org website implies consent to set cookies on your computer. Full details Swaledale and Arkengarthdale Archaeology Group
Registered Charitable Incorporated Organisation Number 1155775
SWAAG Honorary President:
Tim Laurie F,S,A,

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 *****SWAAG_ID***** 917
 Date Entered 24/02/2016
 Updated on 26/02/2016
 Recorded by Tim Laurie
 Category Geographical Record
 Record Type Geomorphology
 SWAAG Site Name 
 Site Type 
 Site Name 
 Site Description 
 Site Access Public Access Land
 Record Date 19/02/2016
 Location Gunnerside Gill, High Scar
 Civil Parish Melbecks
 Brit. National Grid 
 Altitude 530m
 Geology Vertical cliff formed from the Main Limestone. Lidar images show that High Scar was the source of a vast landslip which extended all the way down slope to Gunnerside Beck. High Scar was once masked by unstable glacial debris and only revealed following this vast land slip caused by unstable glacial deposits slumping during late glacial conditions of high meltwater. Subsequent freeze-thaw of the face of the thin- bedded limestone Scar has formed the extensive screes below the cliff.
 Record Name Gunnerside Gill. High Scar. One of the finest limestone Scars in the Yorkshire Dales.
 Record Description Unlike many other exposed limestone cliffs in Swaledale, for example Whitcliffe Scar, Oxnop Scar, Fell End Scar and Cotterby Scars- no trees grow on the face of this high limestone cliff. The reason may be elevation, aridity and full exposure to the west winds. However trees are able to withstand wind if securely rooted. Unlike the above listed Scars which are massively bedded, the limestone strata of the High Scar above Gunnerside Gill is thin bedded, fractured and cannot support the load of mature trees.
 Dimensions See photographs
 Geographical area 
 Species 
 Scientific Name 
 Common / Notable Species 
 Tree and / or Stem Girth 
 Tree: Position / Form / Status 
 Tree Site ID 0
 Associated Site SWAAG ID 0
 Additional Notes Just one small stone banked enclosure with probable hut circles was noted on the bottom edge of the scree slope (See separate Database Record to follow). Fieldhouse and Jennings (1978) in 'A History of Richmond and Swaledale'. (Phillimore, 1978), noted the absence of prehistoric hut circle settlement below High Scar and on the basis that similar locations, albeit not so high, below Scars in Wharfedale or Wensleydale would show hut circle settlement, concluded that early settlement in Swaledale generally was sparse..
 Image 1 ID 6680         Click image to enlarge
 Image 1 Description The approach to High Scar
 Image 2 ID 6681         Click image to enlarge
 Image 2 Description The High Scar and extensive scree below.
 Image 3 ID 6682         Click image to enlarge
 Image 3 Description Stone banked enclosure at front of scree.
 Image 4 ID 6683         Click image to enlarge
 Image 4 Description Detail of the scree and a small stone banked enclosure.
 Image 5 ID 6684         Click image to enlarge
 Image 5 Description Detail of the scree and a small stone banked enclosure.
 Image 6 ID 6685         Click image to enlarge
 Image 6 Description Example of the colonial coral fossils in the scree below the Scar
 Image 7 ID 6686         Click image to enlarge
 Image 7 Description Example of the colonial coral fossils in the scree below the Scar
 Image 8 ID 6687         Click image to enlarge
 Image 8 Description Example of the colonial coral fossils in the scree below the Scar
 Image 9 ID 6688         Click image to enlarge
 Image 9 Description View of the Scar, kame and pro-talus rampart from the eastern end.
 Image 10 ID 6689         Click image to enlarge
 Image 10 Description The approach to the Kining Mine from High Scar
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