Malham Cove is a large curved

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms w ...

formation north of the village of Malham,

North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is the largest ceremonial county (lieutenancy area) in England, covering an area of . Around 40% of the county is covered by national parks, including most of the Yorkshire Dales and the North York Moors. It is one of four co ...

, England. It was formed by a

waterfall A waterfall is a point in a river or stream where water flows over a vertical drop or a series of steep drops. Waterfalls also occur where meltwater drops over the edge of a tabular iceberg or ice shelf. Waterfalls can be formed in several ...

carrying

meltwater Meltwater is water released by the melting of snow or ice, including glacial ice, tabular icebergs and ice shelves over oceans. Meltwater is often found in the ablation zone of glaciers, where the rate of snow cover is reducing. Meltwater ca ...

from

glacier A glacier (; ) is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires distinguishing features, such a ...

s at the end of the last

Ice Age An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages and gre ...

more than 12,000 years ago. Today it is a well-known beauty spot and

rock climbing Rock climbing is a sport in which participants climb up, across, or down natural rock formations. The goal is to reach the summit of a formation or the endpoint of a usually pre-defined route without falling. Rock climbing is a physically a ...

crag within the

Yorkshire Dales National Park The Yorkshire Dales National Park is a national park in England covering most of the Yorkshire Dales. Most of the park is in North Yorkshire, with a sizeable area in Westmorland ( Cumbria) and a small part in Lancashire. The park was d ...

. A large

limestone pavement A limestone pavement is a natural karst landform consisting of a flat, incised surface of exposed limestone that resembles an artificial pavement. The term is mainly used in the UK and Ireland, where many of these landforms have developed dis ...

lies above the cove.

Geology

The cove was formed by a large Ice Age river that fell at this point as a

cataract A cataract is a cloudy area in the lens of the eye that leads to a decrease in vision. Cataracts often develop slowly and can affect one or both eyes. Symptoms may include faded colors, blurry or double vision, halos around light, trouble ...

. The water drop was high and more than wide. The water flowing over the waterfall created the curved shape of the cove because the lip was more heavily eroded than the sides. A stream named

Malham Beck Malham Beck is a stream some long, running southwards through the valley beneath Malham Cove in the Yorkshire Dales, England. It originates in a cave beneath Malham Cove, and flows through Malham before joining Gordale Beck to become the River ...

originates on Malham Moor and emerges from a cave at the bottom of the cove. This is a different stream from the stream that flows out of Malham Tarn north of the cove. This latter stream goes underground at 'Water Sinks' about before the top of the cove and does not emerge until Aire Head, south of Malham. The two streams were once thought to be one and the same, but experiments with dyes have shown that they are two separate waterways that go underground at different places. Their routes cross, without their waters mixing, behind the limestone cliff, re-emerging a few miles apart; indicating that there is a complex cave system behind the limestone cliff.

Cave diver Cave-diving is underwater diving in water-filled caves. It may be done as an extreme sport, a way of exploring flooded caves for scientific investigation, or for the search for and recovery of divers or, as in the 2018 Thai cave rescue, other ...

s, entering the system through the cave at the base of the cove, have so far explored about . Stalagmite deposits inside the rising, dated to at least 27 ka, imply that the cave was dry during the Devensian ice age, and so must have been formed before then. The cave systems usually carry away any water before it reaches the fall; however, Malham Cove temporarily became a waterfall for what is believed to be the first time since 1824 on 6 December 2015, after heavy rainfall from

Storm Desmond Storm Desmond was an extratropical cyclone and fourth named storm of the 2015–16 UK and Ireland windstorm season, notable for directing a plume of moist air, known as an atmospheric river, which brought record amounts of orographic rainfall ...

History

The priest and noted

antiquary An antiquarian or antiquary () is an aficionado or student of antiquities or things of the past. More specifically, the term is used for those who study history with particular attention to ancient artifacts, archaeological and historic si ...

Thomas West described the cove in 1779: "This beautiful rock is like the age-tinted wall of a prodigious castle; the stone is very white, and from the ledges hang various shrubs and vegetables, which with the tints given it by the bog water. & c. gives it a variety that I never before saw so pleasing in a plain rock." On the west side of the 80-metre (260 foot) high cliff face are about 400 irregular stone steps: these form part of the route of the

Pennine Way The Pennine Way is a National Trail in England, with a small section in Scotland. The trail stretches for from Edale, in the northern Derbyshire Peak District, north through the Yorkshire Dales and Northumberland National Park and ends at Kir ...

and lead to an uneven limestone pavement at the top.

Rock climbing

The cove is popular with climbers offering easy to hard traditional climbs, as well as

sport climbing Sport climbing (or Bolted climbing) is a form of rock climbing that relies on permanent anchors (or bolts), permanently fixed into the rock for climber protection, in which a rope that is attached to the climber is clipped into the anchors t ...

, including the UK's first grade sport climb, ''Rainman'', by

Steve McClure Steve McClure (born 25 July 1970) is a British rock climber and climbing author, who is widely regarded as Britain's leading and most important sport climber for a period that extends for over two decades, starting from the late 1990s. In 2017, h ...

. Due to the cliff's south face, it is a popular for rock climbing in winter; however, in summer, the face can become very hot.

Media appearances

The cove, along with nearby Gordale Scar, was featured in an episode of the BBC TV series ''

Seven Natural Wonders ''Seven Natural Wonders'' is a television series that was broadcast on BBC Two from 3 May to 20 June 2005. The programme takes an area of England each week and, from votes by the people living in that area, shows the 'seven natural wonders' of ...

'' as one of the natural wonders of Yorkshire. The pavement was used as a shooting location for the 1992 film version of " Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights" The cove was also featured in the film ''

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows ''Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows'' is a fantasy novel written by British author J. K. Rowling and the seventh and final novel of the main ''Harry Potter'' series. It was released on 21 July 2007 in the United Kingdom by Bloomsbury Publ ...

'' (Part 1) as one of the places Hermione and Harry visited. The scenes were filmed in November 2009. The limestone pavement and general location of Malham featured in an episode of '' The Trip'' starring

Steve Coogan Stephen John Coogan (; born 14 October 1965) is an English actor, comedian, producer and screenwriter. He is most known for creating original characters such as Alan Partridge, a socially inept and politically incorrect media personality, whi ...

and

Rob Brydon Robert Brydon Jones (; born 3 May 1965) is a Welsh actor, comedian, impressionist, presenter, singer and writer. He played Dr Paul Hamilton in the Australian/British comedy series ''Supernova'', Bryn West in the BBC sitcom '' Gavin & Stacey'' ...

which aired on BBC2 on 29 November 2010.

Gallery

File:Malham Cove Rock Climbing.JPG, Cliff face, with climbers File:Limestone pavement above Malham Cove.jpg,

Limestone pavement A limestone pavement is a natural karst landform consisting of a flat, incised surface of exposed limestone that resembles an artificial pavement. The term is mainly used in the UK and Ireland, where many of these landforms have developed dis ...

at the top of the cove File:over edge, Malham Cove, cp.jpg, View over cliff edge to Malham Beck below File:beautiful island fallen stones, Malham.jpg, Stones in Malham Beck

References

External links

Walk to Gordale Scar and Malham Cove
* ttp://www.outofoblivion.org.uk/video.asp A computer-generated video of the creation of Malham Covebr>Amateur video of the 2015 waterfall
{{refend Valleys of North Yorkshire Craven District Rock formations of England Tourist attractions in North Yorkshire Climbing areas of England