Now this is what I call a real quarry -- the Foel Fawr quarry complex in the Black Mountains, Carmarthenshire. A fantastic Toby Driver image from the RCAHMW collection.
Apparently these quarries were used for the extraction of limestone, mostly for lime burning. Some of the cuttings are less than a hundred years old. It may be that the more rectangular cuttings are younger than the more irregular ones in the distance. I'm intrigued by the little circular pits all over the place -- what were they?
Dolines! There's a lot of cave under there.
ReplyDeleteI had always thought of dolines as being much larger -- but yes, some of them are a reasonable size. Sinkholes and other karstic features seems like a reasonable explanation. If they were excavation pits one would expect to see traces of tracks into them, and maybe some spoil as well.....
ReplyDeleteIn Derbyshire they would be bell pits along a rake but not here as cast spoil is absent as is any mineralisation.
ReplyDeleteSink holes I guess following present or past moving water.
Nice pics.
M