I felt very privileged to sit on the sill of Malham Cove to witness the sunrise. Such a special atmosphere with a surreal silence; only experienced in such tranquil places. Even the animals seemed to have just woken up, bleating for breakfast or skipping over the deep cracks in the limestone pavement as they forage for food.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s an effort to get up there, even though there is a well maintained path and stone steps. But it’s worth every step for the rewarding view
Of course, some people ascend via the cliff face its self – not me, it looks terrifying!
I visited with my husband; he took a great photo of me soaking up the atmosphere as the sun broke through. Since our return I’ve sifted through my photos and chosen a couple to publish right away, as a potential canvas print (click on the images, those published will take you to the relevant product)
“Wagtail Skipping over the Cracks of the Limestone Pavement”
It was such a delight to see, but incredibly difficult to take a close up photograph.
These little birds are so light on their feet, moving at surprising speed and agility, as they skip over the deep cracks in the rock. The colours of their feathers and markings blended very well into the limestone background, it was hard to spot let alone get in focus as they skipped by constantly looking out for danger. You can imagine how many near misses I got, but I was quite pleased with this one.
“Malham Cove as the sun rises”
There were a few options for canvas prints. I chose a large sized canvas print to upload to my website. I was thinking about how it would look in a room and how the path invites you to follow into the scene below. This one not only shows the area, the high vantage point, but also the track below edging the Malham Beck.
A few facts (ref: malhamdale.com)
Malham Cove is a huge curving amphitheatre shaped cliff formation of limestone rock.
The vertical face of the cliff is about 260 feet high. The top of the cove is a large area of deeply eroded limestone pavement, of a strange pattern rarely seen in England. The majesty of Malham Cove looks out over the Village of Malham
Access: Open all year, a good footpath leads from the road to the foot of the Cove and steps lead up to the Limestone Pavement on the top of the cove (note no parking is available at this location you must park in the Yorkshire Dales national park Authority Car Park or in the village).
Size: approximately 80 metres high and 300 metres wide (a 260 foot high by 984 foot long curved crag).
Limestone Pavements are a feature of Malham Cove and surrounding areas with the Clints (the blocks of limestone) and Grykes (the gaps) creating a unique wildlife habitat or micro-climate for rare wild flowers and ferns such as wood sorrel, Herb Robert, Green Spleenwort and Wall Rue
I hope you enjoy my images, feel free to browse my website. I will be adding more over time.
Angela x
