There are small quarries scattered all along the tracks that wind through the Sutherland Estate forestry. A few, like this one, were developed to exploit the local sandstone which is an excellent freestone with a warm colour, so was used in most of the older buildings around here.
On one of the surfaces I found what might be the tracks of a small two-legged dinosaur, perhaps a velociraptor, each footprint about thirty millimetres long - except that these are Devonian sandstones laid down soon after the first fish emerged from the ocean intent on colonising the land.
Most of the quarries are for aggregate for the roads. In digging this one the workmen left a pool of water which, at first sight, seemed barren but, on more careful inspection....
....was home to numerous tadpoles. Heaven knows what they have been eating as the pool contains hardly any vegetation, while....
....Mrs MW's find, a small group of common newts, had plenty to eat - the tadpoles.
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