Roulston Scar Iron Age Hillfort

There are few more imposing sights in Yorkshire

than Roulston Scar, the beetle-browed rockface

below the Yorkshire Gliding Club.

 

It lends itself perfectly to launching gliders because of its sheer profile.

While the escarpment north and south of it slopes away,

Roulston Scar stands proud of the hillside.

How come?

 

Roulston Scar was ground out of the hillside by a wall of ice.

 

When the ice sheets pushed their way down the Vale of Mowbray 25,000 years ago,

they carved the landscape into new shapes.

 

You might think that ice would simply slide over everything,

but it contained so many pebbles and boulders

that it generated enormous friction.

Together with the freezing and grinding action of the ice

this friction wore away the underlying rock.

 

At the end of the ice age, the torrents of water from the melting ice

finished the job, cutting into the rocks at the base of the scar

to give it its distinctive jutting profile.