Curved cliff
A stone amphitheatre.
Andrew — CC BY 2.0 · Carroll Pierce — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Johnny Coop — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Ibrahim Ahmed (lasagna165) — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Bill Harrison — CC BY-SA 2.0
Malham Cove is a huge curved limestone formation about 1 km north of the village of Malham in North Yorkshire, England, some 41 km northwest of Bradford in a straight line. Today it is a well-known beauty spot and rock-climbing crag in the Yorkshire Dales National Park. It was formed by a waterfall carrying glacial meltwater at the end of the last ice age, more than 12,000 years ago. The fall was 80 metres high and more than 300 metres wide, and its lip eroded more than its sides, giving the cove its curved shape. The stream of Malham Beck emerges from a cave at the foot of the cliff, and experiments have shown a complex cave system behind it. The great grey limestone wall rises in a semicircular amphitheatre above a green valley of trees and the beck, and above the cliff spreads a broad limestone pavement of square blocks split by deep fissures, looking out over the valley and hills. Visitors walk from the village on an easy path to the foot of the cliff, then climb the path at its side to the pavement on top. Take care walking across the pavement's fissures; the view from the top over the valley is superb.
A stone amphitheatre.
Blocks and fissures.
A stream from a cave.
Malham, North Yorkshire, England
By the path beside the cliff.
Easy to the base; the climb is steep.