'Sunbiggin Tarn and Great Asby Scar'

Location : Orton
Map - Ordnance Survey - NY 675077.

Sunbiggin Tarn and Moors is at a dramatic isolated place along a minor road from Orton to Crosby Garrett / Soulby, with views of Wild Boar Fell, the Howgills and Great Asby Scar. A great place for a picnic, and a walk around the adjacent limestone pavement of Great Asby Scar.

It is an important site for its variety of wildlife and plantlife, and is designated an SSSI - a site of Special Scientific Interest.

This area of low moorland is a magnet for many visiting birds during migration, plus its resident species, including Mallard, Teal, Wigeon, Gadwall, Pochard, Pintail, Goldeneye, tufted Duck and Shelduck, Great Crested Grebe and Little Grebe, Water Rail, Coot, Moorhen, Snipe, possible Jack Snipe and, almost yearly, migrating Black Tern. Sedge Warbler, Cuckoo, Meadow Pipit, Red Grouse, Common Buzzard, Redshank, Wheatear and possible migrating Green Sandpiper and Marsh Harrier.

It is considered to be the most important site in Britain for petrifying springs with tufa formation. See Special Areas of Conservation in the UK for more information.

It is also one of only three sites in the UK where you will find the sandbowl snail. See UK Biodiversity Action Plan for more information.

It is on the route of the Coast to Coast Walk.

Great Asby Scar National Nature Reserve (NNR) contains some of the best examples of Limestone Pavement in Britain. Limestone pavements are nationally rare and have been extensively damaged by removal for garden rockery stone. Since the glaciers of the last ice age melted (about 10,000 years ago), weathering of the limestone has created deep fissures, or grikes, which divide the pavement into blocks called clints.

Woodland plants grow in the limestone fissures. Among them are harts tongue fern, wood anemone, dog's mercury, rigid buckler fern, and limestone fern. Uncommon herbs such as angular solomon's seal and bloody cranesbill grow in the pavements. Trees include small hawthorn, hazel, and ash.

More information from English Nature, and The countryside Agency.

Castlefolds is considered to be a later period Iron Age Romano-British site cAD79-410 and is located in an area of outstanding natural beauty (AONB) between the villages of Orton and Great Asby close to the summit of the famous limestone scar that stretches several kilometres east to west.

There is controversy about the site’s provenance but it has been given scheduled ancient monument status. The enclosure measures 0.5 ha and was considered to be defensive in nature with a perimeter wall that was constructed using large limestone blocks and fill, it contained the remains of at least twelve stone hut circles.

It is located in an area that consists of deeply fissured limestone pavements and is close to a modern-day OS triangulation station that occupies a flat-topped knoll at 400m OD (approx 1350ft). Today its enclosure walls are reduced to piles of rubble and in an area that is predominantly limestone a smooth sandstone cobble is noticeable and this stone exhibits an 8cm depression/cup mark that was located at the northern end of the enclosure.

Other sandstone blocks lie within the enclosure, but none bear artificial markings. It is debatable whether this is a cup-marked stone from a Neolithic or Bronze Age ritual context it may well be contemporary with the Iron Age Romano - British site and served some form of a practical use.The surrounding area is rich in early prehistoric remains such as the Neolithic long cairn at Rayseat Pike (NY 683073) Gameland Stone Circle (NY 640082) and Hollin Stump Cairn (NY 652117)and a number of other cairns and barrows have been recorded on the nearby fells. The existence of cup-marked stones within an Iron Age Romano-British site is not unique to Castlefolds. Other enclosures in Cumbria such as that at Hugill contained stones that were cup marked and it may not be coincidental that the stones were incorporated within the boundaries of these later period settlements.

The Iron Age brought in many new innovations and products, being a naturally recurring geological feature in Britain iron ore was readily available.Some goods were obviously traded or gifted to other groups since a number of personal items such jewellery, harness fittings, weapons and pottery have been located abroad. The cup marked stones may well have symbolised a continuation of ritual significance within later periods. While the majority of Cumbria’s monumental rock art have been recorded and documented over centuries the evidence of its open air panels have been recorded only within the last few years.

Aerial photos by Simon Ledingham.