Brimham Rocks

Brimham Rocks
Site of Special Scientific Interest
Idol stone at Brimham Rocks
Brimham Rocks is located in North Yorkshire
Brimham Rocks
Location within North Yorkshire
LocationNorth Yorkshire, England
Grid referenceSE211647
Coordinates54°04′51″N 01°41′08″W / 54.08083°N 1.68556°W / 54.08083; -1.68556
InterestBiological, geological
Area183.8959 hectares (1.839 km2; 0.7100 sq mi)
Notification19 February 1988
Location mapDefra Magicmap
Map
Interactive map of Brimham Rocks

Brimham Rocks, once known as Brimham Crags, is a 183.9-hectare (454-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and Geological Conservation Review (GCR) site, 8 miles (13 km) north-west of Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England, on Brimham Moor in the Nidderdale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The site, notified as SSSI in 1958, is an outcrop of Millstone Grit, with small areas of birch woodland and a large area of wet and dry heath.

The site is known for its water- and weather-eroded rocks, which were formed over 325 million years ago and have assumed fantastic shapes.[1] In the 18th and 19th centuries, antiquarians such as Hayman Rooke wondered whether they could have been at least partly carved by druids,[2] an idea that ran concurrently with the popularity of James Macpherson's Fragments of Ancient Poetry of 1760, and a developing interest in New-Druidism. For up to two hundred years, some stones have carried fanciful names, such as Druid's Idol, Druid's Altar and Druid's Writing Desk.

Brimham Rocks has SSSI status because of the value of its geology and the upland woodland and the acidic wet and dry heath habitats that support localised and specialised plant forms, such as chickweed wintergreen, cowberry, bog asphodel and three species of heather.[3]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference Croft 2009 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Rooke 1786 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Citation BR SSSI was invoked but never defined (see the help page).