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Exploring the gritstone and shale landscape

The gritstone and shale landscape of today tells the story of the past.

Gritstone is a hard, resistant rock as it is predominantly made of sand, which is itself composed of quartz, a relatively hard mineral.  For more information about the hardness of minerals go to Moh's scale of hardness.

A gritstone feature stands up to the elements in the moorland landscape.

Shale, is a softer rock that can easily be broken or in some cases crumbled.  The fine particles of mud that make up shale, can be eroded resulting in a variety of landscape features.

Explore these links to find out more about the features of the gritstone and shale landscape:

edges
tors
landslips
high moorland plateau
wide shale valleys

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