Creswell Crags

Geotourism in South Yorkshire & Derbyshire

The arrival of spring is always a good time to start planning field trips for the year ahead. After seeing a few new places in West Yorkshire and revisiting Anston Stones Wood, my next idea came to me when I visited an exhibition at Weston Park Museum.

An extract from the 1957 BGS Memoir

Creswell Crags is internationally famous for the prolific mammalian remains and artifacts, which are considered to provide a complete stratigraphic record from Middle Palaeolithic to early post-Palaeolithic times. It is both a Scheduled Monument and a Site of Special Scientific Interest, for its palaeontological and archaeological value.

In 2003, the most northerly example of Rock Art in Europe was discovered here and - subject to confirmation of the date of recent finds in Jersey – it has been considered to be the oldest in Britain.

Although I had known about Creswell Crags - as one of the gorges that cut through the Magnesian Limestone - and I had attended a meeting there to discuss the Southern Magnesian Limestone Natural Area, whilst working with the South Yorkshire RIGS Group, this place still remained a mystery to me.

The caves are all gated and it is only possible to see Robin Hood Cave and Church Hole Cave as part of a guided tour, with the Rock Art being found in the latter. Here, in addition to seeing the engravings in the rock, there are good examples of flowstone and other solution features that relate to the formation of the caves.

Church Hole Cave

Access to the gorge itself is unrestricted and, although much of the rock faces are obscured by thick vegetation in the summer, there are still plenty of outcrops where the characteristics of the upper subdivision of the Cadeby Formation - the Sprotbrough Member - can clearly be seen. In contrast to the lower Wetherby Member, which is generally well bedded, with ooliths and various small fossil shells - as well as bryozoan reefs - the limestone is strongly wedge bedded and virtually unfossiliferous.
 

The bedrock geology at Creswell Crags

As a tourist attraction, Creswell Crags is very popular and it would probably appear on my field trip itinerary for Geotourists, although I think that 3 hours spent here is more than enough and that it should be combined with other sites in the area.