ブレイスウェルの天然記念物・トップ6

who doesn't like a ride beside the water

These slopes have been known as the Crags for at least 100 years, although the name on the 1841 Ordnance Survey map is Northcliffe Hills. In ancient times these rocky outcrops were vital to local transport, communication and defence. They provided firm ground for travel and vantage points for surveying the landscape. On a clear day you can see as far as the Derbyshire hills, Emley Moor television mast, Barnsley Town Hall, and the urban skylines of Sheffield and Rotherham. Along the Conisbrough side of the Crags you will find Northcliffe Quarry, which provided limestone to make fertilizer. A tramway known as 'the incline' carried stone to the kilns, and you can still see the remains of the incline if you look carefully. The quarry is now a local nature reserve (LNR) and a site of special scientific interest (SSSI).

The story goes that centuries ago, when sheep stealing was a capital offence, a man stole a sheep from a field at night. He must have injured the sheep because he was carrying it over his shoulders and had tied its feet together with a rope. When he reached the lane now known as Hangman's Stone he stopped for a rest, placing the sheep on top of a stone post whilst he himself sat on the ground He then fell asleep. The story is that the sheep must have slipped off the stone and the rope, which the man had round his body slipped up round his neck and strangled him, so doing the hangman out of a job

Between two farmers' fields is a corridor of woodland wilderness filled with the scent of wild garlic in the spring. In it is a path that leads from the road toward Barnburgh, but if you look to your right at the stone crags, every so often, hidden among the foliage is faces peering out, carved into the rock face. There are also symbols that look alien in origin, or resemble insects.

Angry men or staring gargoyles? you decide.

Small elusive rock cave in the escarpment, just below the path. You will find it from the Top path via the semi-circle track. Supposedly haunted, it's popular with ghosthunters in the night. The cave was excavated in the 1960's which revealed ancient flint tools from the ice age and animal bones from animals such reindeer and hyena 12,000 years ago - That's Ten Thousand Years BC!

Small elusive rock cave in the escarpment, just below the path. You will find it from the Top path via the semi-circle track. Supposedly haunted, it's popular with ghosthunters in the night. The cave was excavated in the 1960's which revealed ancient flint tools from the ice age and animal bones from animals such reindeer and hyena 12,000 years ago - That's Ten Thousand Years BC!

Small elusive rock cave in the escarpment, just below the path. You will find it from the Top path via the semi-circle track. Supposedly haunted, it's popular with ghosthunters in the night. The cave was excavated in the 1960's which revealed ancient flint tools from the ice age (more than 10,000 years ago) and animal bones from animals such as reindeer and hyena