reading rocks

Episode

• Rocks, ripples and reformers 13.05.2026 9mnt

  Send us Fan Mail There can’t be another short walk in the country where you can search out the fossil plants and animals from hundreds of millions of years ago including the oldest recorded amphibian footprints, walk across evidence of ancient earthquakes, touch rocks that were once 1200° molten magma and see the debris left by the last ice sheet to cover England, stroll past the site of a 10,000 year old Stone Age house, search out the tree stumps of a drowned forest where those Mesolithic p...
• Time-travelling by train Carlisle to Newcastle - part 3 04.05.2026 11mnt

  Send us Fan Mail This the final part of this rail journey from close to the west coast of England to the east coast, starts in Hexham and finishes in Newcastle upon Tyne. On the way there's a little discussion about geological maps and their availability and accuracy. But mainly we'll be looking at the geology and landscape - the river deposits and the valley - the challenge such valley routes present to engineers and the coal that was is important to not only the economy of this line - but a...
• Time-travelling by train – Carlisle to Newcastle part 2 03.05.2026 14mnt

  Send us Fan Mail We got as far as Brampton station last time. We have changed bedrock from the red Triassic sandstones of the west to 335 to 310 million year old Carboniferous strata – a repeating mix of layers of sandstone, shale, limestone and coal. A product of different past environments when the tectonic plate we were part of was on the Equator. Back then the land and sea kept changing places. Shallow coral seas produced the limestones, when sea level fell the environment became b...
• Time-travelling by train - Carlisle to Newcastle - Part 1 30.04.2026 14mnt

  Send us Fan Mail Our journey starts in Carlisle and heads east. In a nutshell in terms of bedrock geology we begin on rock that is around 250 million years old from the Triassic period and as we head eastward travel over progressively older rocks crossing into 330 million year old Carboniferous strata around Brampton Station. Then we are on Carboniferous all the way to Newcastle – and once we get past Ovingham we start to cross younger Carboniferous rocks with many coal seams. That’s th...
• Kielder Rocks 24.04.2026 26mnt

  Send us Fan Mail Welcome to the most remote and wildest part of our region. It’s a place where the skies are darker and the stars shine brighter. Where ospreys feel safe enough to hunt and nest. Where red squirrels, goshawks and pine martens all feel at home and where other long disappeared species may soon be encouraged to make a comeback. Its Kielder’s landscape that makes that possible and it is its rocks that are the literal foundation of that. This is a stunning place, one with a fascina...
• Time-travelling by train - Carlisle to Settle 09.04.2026 11mnt

  Send us Fan Mail These podcasts originally started as abstracts from some of the 260 places in the 5 rock books. They are themed differently to the books – by geological time, the relevance of rocks and most recently Series 3 and 4 took journeys along Hadrian’s frontier and down the 4 big northern rivers. Along the way podcasts have been evolving and some other geology not in the books has been getting a mention. My thinking is to continue that trend - , but first of all to do a taster ...
• Wonderful Wear 07.04.2026 19mnt

  Send us Fan Mail I know the River Wear starts at the confluence of several streams at the eponymous Wearhead, but we are going a little way up one of thse streams to Killhope. We will pick up a tale of lead mining there - the geology related to the mineral wealth of the North Pennines will be the thread that joins a lot of the stories in first part this episode. Then after a little Whin Sill and some elegant Carboniferous monuments its time for some younger rocks – rocks for which Durha...
• The garden of Eden 02.04.2026 14mnt

  Send us Fan Mail A journey from source to sea but this time the Irish sea. The River Eden starts in the south and flows north before turning west near Carlisle and heading to the Solway estuary. There are quite a few places we’ve already visited along the river in previous podcasts so we’ll do a quick recap and you can always click on the earlier episodes if you’d like to know more.
• There's only one Tyne 31.03.2026 14mnt

  Send us Fan Mail Since the last episode we and the river have flowed past Newbrough with its definite Roam road and indefinite Roman fort and go and on through Hexham. Both places described in previous episodes. The Tyne is now a single river. Waters meet was passed at Acomb. Hexham is worth a pause anyway. Its fine Abbey and medieval buildings – many made with robbed – sorry repurposed – Roman Stone described in series 3. from Corbridge also passed and its Roman Town Coria or Cor...
• Seduced by Silver but sustained by lead 29.03.2026 13mnt

  Send us Fan Mail We begin quite a way up the South Tyne Valley – appropriately at a place called Tynehead to try to get to the bottom of the many stories about the Romans and silver mining in the north. The metals theme continues with stops and stories at a prehistoric barrow at Kirkhaugh and a Roman fort thought by some but not all to be positioned to protect Roman state lead mining. The episode ends beside the South Tyne at Beltingham - which tells a different story about mining metal...
• The Tees - from the moors to the coast 27.03.2026 14mnt

  Send us Fan Mail This is a journey from moors above the middle reaches of the River Tees near Barnard Castle to its mouth where it empties into Hartlepool Bay. Along the way the plan is to look at some prehistoric rock art at Barningham, celebrate the merits of sand and gravel and a hear a cautionary tale about flood risk, revisit the salt deposits of Teesside and in Hartlepool Bay hear about some graphic evidence of times when our coastline was very different
• A trip down the Tees 26.03.2026 13mnt

  Send us Fan Mail The first of our journeys is along the River Tees. The Tees has its headwaters way up in the Pennines, in the Carboniferous rocks just east of Cross Fell, but downstream of Cow Green Reservoir it cuts through some of the oldest rocks in Northern England – that’s why its the first or the rivers in this series. On our way downstream we will explore some different bits of the Whin Sill and some rocks it baked, the making pencils from ancient slates and take a closer look at High...
• The far east 26.03.2026 15mnt

  Send us Fan Mail The episode title of this section of the Roman Rock Trail isn’t perfect – as we are starting in west Durham in a place called Lanchester, then returning to the Wall at Heddon – a village which owes its position to its hard sandstone bedrock resisting glacial erosion more than the surrounding area. And then onto Benwell. A place not on the current Hadrian’s Wall Trail but from what I hear it will be in the near future. As will the final stop, South Shields Fort – popularly kno...
• Scratching the surface 22.03.2026 16mnt

  Send us Fan Mail This episode initially takes us from Chesters on the Wall to Hexham. South of the Wall but very much a gateway and one with some important recycled Roman rocks. Then back to close to the Wall at Fallowfield before jumping back south to Roman Corbridge – Coria or sometimes Corstopitum. The geology will be as diverse as the geography. From the rocks that made millstones to a cavalryman's tombstone,
• Hard rock and hard water 14.03.2026 14mnt

  Send us Fan Mail All of these podcasts are geological but this episode is three-quarters pure rock. First the plan is to look closely at the rock that provided the mortar for the wall – limestone – did the Romans use it to sweeten these northern soils too – they can be pretty acid. Next its more whin Sill – I am starting to wonder if there’s too much on this rock already, but it does play a huge role in the landscape and on Roman plans and they say you can’t get enough of a good thing. The Wh...
• Channels and minerals 12.03.2026 15mnt

  Send us Fan Mail Time to descend into and out of one of the classic components of this frontier landscape - one of the "gaps". You have already experienced a few and today there will be a few more. But your legs need a break so we are going to deviate south of the Wall too. To see a ditch, then go find about two mineral resources that were used extensively by the Romans - coal and iron - but what do we know about them.
• Forts, castles and camps 11.03.2026 17mnt

  Send us Fan Mail We are starting at Bewcastle Fort around 10 kilometres north of Hadrians Wall – well that’s as the crow flies. But then we will be returning the Wall and some of its most dramatic landscapes and archaeology. From a ruined medieval Thirlwall Castle near Greenhead village – built completely of re-purposed Roman stones – we climb up onto the escarpment of the Whin Sill – 295 million years ago it was an intrusion of molten rock that then solidified into a hard rock called dolerit...
• Some Wall at last 10.03.2026 14mnt

  Send us Fan Mail Our journey east continues, we are about one and a half kilometres north east of Lanercost just over the line dividing the red St Bees Sandstone bedrock from grey brown Carboniferous rocks – although there is no bedrock to see here – its covered by a variable thickness of glacial deposits. Those thick stony clays sand and gravels may well explain why the first incarnation of Hadrian’s Wall in the western sector was made of earth and turf and not stone. They also mean its esse...
• The western front 09.03.2026 17mnt

  Send us Fan Mail Series 3 is an extended Hadrian’s Wall rock trail with little side trips and the first episode will start just north of a little seaside town called Maryport on the southern coast of the Solway Firth and head north and then east. We will take in salt making, how the Romans defended an estuary at Burgh Marsh, a large Roman building in Carlisle whose drains have produced a fantastic collection of semi-precious stones - intaglios; and finish at a Roman quarry in a gorge of...
• The bedrock of our heritage 07.03.2026 16mnt

  Send us Fan Mail We are so lucky in the north – apart from having far more open space than most people those open spaces have some of the most spectacular landscapes in Britain. Our northern landscapes are a result of our geology and their biodiversity and cultural heritage are profoundly influenced by our geodiversity. How to choose just 7 places to illustrate this? Someone will rightly ask – how could he leave that out!.