Читать книгу The Reivers Way онлайн

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Rousing Borders ballads and the romantic stories penned by Sir Walter Scott cast a rosy hue on what must have been a most bloodthirsty period. One can only rejoice at the peace and tranquillity of the Northumberland countryside today, but also occasionally succumb to a few moments of melancholy while remembering the strife and senselessness of those troubled times.

Much marginal land in Northumberland is used for forestry plantations so expect some clear felling

GEOLOGY AND SCENERY

The oldest rocks in Northumberland are seldom seen, but underlie the whole region. They are Silurian slates and ‘greywackes’, around 420 million years old. The Cheviot Hills were formed of two igneous rock types in the Devonian period. A mass of andesite lavas make up almost all the lower foothills, dating back 395 million years. The central part of the Cheviot Hills is a huge dome of granite, pushed up into the Earth’s crust some 360 million years ago.

South of the Cheviot Hills, most of Northumberland is made up of Carboniferous rocks. These were laid down in a sea over 300 million years ago. At certain times the sea was fairly shallow and the water clear, so that corals flourished, and their remains formed limestone beds. At other times distant mountain ranges were being eroded, and rivers brought mud, sand and gravel into the sea, which formed great thicknesses of mudstone, sandstone and gritstone.