Gait Barrows (SSSI and NNR)
Location and Access Information
Grid Reference: SD 481772
Limestone pavement at Gait Barrows
Gait Barrows National Nature Reserve (NNR), lies in the centre of the Arnside-Silverdale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) in north-west Lancashire 3km from Silverdale. There are no car parks near the site, and no public transport runs nearby. Public access is limited to permit holders only. There is a one and a half mile nature trail at the Reserve and leaflets explaining the various interests of the area.
For more information see the Gait Barrows NNR page.
View the site map on Nature on the Map
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Geological Interest
This site comprises an extensive outcrop of Carboniferous limestone that gently slopes southwards from a maximum height of 30 m OD. It contains nationally important examples of limestone pavement and hazel-ash woodland. Limestone pavement is a weathering feature of hard limestones that arises through the gradual dissolution of the limestone by rainwater, which is slightly acidic. This process creates a number of diagnostic features commonly including massive, flat, tabular limestone blocks (clints) with intersecting vertical fissures (grikes). At Gait Barrows, pockets of soil formed in the grikes and surface depressions on the clints support the widest range of characteristic plant species recorded on any limestone pavement in Britain. The shady grikes support an abundance of harts-tongue fern and other fern species, while plants such as tutsan and bloody cranesbill grow on the pavement
