En-route to another venue we had planned, we decided to call in at Mootlaw, which turned out to be a nice, relaxing chilled mooch in a quarry site surrounded by Nortumberland’s beautiful countryside. I would seriously love to go back here with a quad bike! Perfect weather made this all the more better, as well as being in the excellent company of the usual suspects, Dave and Sed. Cheers for a great day guys.
From Northumberland county council: -
Mootlaw Quarry is located approximately 2.5 kilometres to the north of Matfen
between the villages of Ryal, Ingoe and Kirkheaton. Carboniferous limestone
is extracted from the site.
Method of working –
Extraction of limestone was taking place to the eastern phases of the site
from a single bench when it was last operational in early 2010. Limestone is
blasted from the face to achieve initial fragmentation and limestone is then
extracted and processed through a series of crushers and screens to produce
a range of sizes for the construction industry and exported from the site.
Restoration –
The planning permission requires the site to be restored to a mixture of
agriculture, woodland, lakes and species rich grassland. In terms of
restoration a large section of land has been restored to an agricultural end-use and includes enclosures 2, 3 and 4 and these have completed the formal
5 year aftercare period in Autumn 2011, having been used by the landowner
for the grazing of sheep prior to the commencement date. Enclosure 1 was
entered into the formal 5 year aftercare period from the autumn 2008 and has
now been formally released from aftercare.
The planning permission requires the site to be completed and restored by 31
December 2014.
Had the pleasure of spotting this little guy...
On climbing up the rocks, we noticed a lifebelt stand and decided to venture on to see what was beyond the hill…. And this is what we saw when we eventually reached it... beautiful... and you can just about make out the two swans who were floating about on it. The water was VERY deep, and really clear.
Cue ‘stone skimming time’
From Northumberland county council: -
Mootlaw Quarry is located approximately 2.5 kilometres to the north of Matfen
between the villages of Ryal, Ingoe and Kirkheaton. Carboniferous limestone
is extracted from the site.
Method of working –
Extraction of limestone was taking place to the eastern phases of the site
from a single bench when it was last operational in early 2010. Limestone is
blasted from the face to achieve initial fragmentation and limestone is then
extracted and processed through a series of crushers and screens to produce
a range of sizes for the construction industry and exported from the site.
Restoration –
The planning permission requires the site to be restored to a mixture of
agriculture, woodland, lakes and species rich grassland. In terms of
restoration a large section of land has been restored to an agricultural end-use and includes enclosures 2, 3 and 4 and these have completed the formal
5 year aftercare period in Autumn 2011, having been used by the landowner
for the grazing of sheep prior to the commencement date. Enclosure 1 was
entered into the formal 5 year aftercare period from the autumn 2008 and has
now been formally released from aftercare.
The planning permission requires the site to be completed and restored by 31
December 2014.
Had the pleasure of spotting this little guy...
On climbing up the rocks, we noticed a lifebelt stand and decided to venture on to see what was beyond the hill…. And this is what we saw when we eventually reached it... beautiful... and you can just about make out the two swans who were floating about on it. The water was VERY deep, and really clear.
Cue ‘stone skimming time’
Cheers,
Cat.
