Audrey Brown, August 2021

If you would like to find out more about the fascinating rocks that form the foundation of the Westmorland Dales, ten new EarthCaches have been developed, each covering a different aspect of the geology.

EarthCaches are part of the activity called Geocaching, where small containers are hidden around town and country and geocachers use a GPS, either a specific GPS receiver or on a smartphone, to direct them to the location of the container. There are more than 50 of these traditional geocaches within the Westmorland Dales area. These have now been supplemented with the new EarthCaches. All the information you need to get started with geocaching is on the geocaching.com website.

For an EarthCache, there is no box to be found, but there is information about the geology on the website, and on an app for those using a smartphone, about the geology and then some geological questions to be answered and sent electronically to the cache owner. The questions aren’t difficult and you can log the cache as ‘found’ as soon as you have sent your answers. Normally the cache owner will acknowledge your answers within a day or two.

The new EarthCaches are entitled:

• Ancient ocean, Gaisgill
• Brachiopod graveyard, Sunbiggin
• Brockram, Stenkrith Park
• Limestone and brockram, Waitby
• Limestone Pavement, Little Asby
• Limestone Quarry, Knott
• Sandstone delta, Bents
• Stone Circle, Gamelands
• Thunderstone, Orton
• Treefold East, Little Asby 

If you’re out in any of these areas, you may spot geocachers looking earnestly at their phones and at the rocks and making notes. They’ll be very happy to talk to you about geocaching and to try to get you hooked on this pastime, which gives the perfect excuse to go for a walk and explore an area you might otherwise not have visited and learn some more about the rocks too.