Hutton Roof Crags

Hutton Roof Crags is a limestone hill in south-eastern Cumbria, near the village of Hutton Roof. It stands within the Morecambe Bay Pavements Special Area of Conservation and forms part of a Site of Special Scientific Interest. The hill carries grassland, woodland and large areas of exposed limestone pavement. Much of the UK’s remaining limestone pavement lies here and on the nearby Farleton Knott. The rock is more than 300 metres thick and was formed during the Carboniferous period about 350 million years ago. The open common land holds most of the surviving pavement, though some has been taken over centuries for building stone, fertiliser and millstones. Now protected by law, removal of limestone is an offence. The pavements lie between lowland sites at Gait Barrows eight kilometres to the west and upland sites at Ingleborough nineteen kilometres to the east. Cumbria Wildlife Trust manages the Hutton Roof National Nature Reserve, leasing Park Wood and the common from Natural England and the parish council. Visitors find angular Solomon’s seal, limestone fern and dark red helleborine growing on the pavement. The nationally scarce rigid buckler-fern and blue moor-grass grow in abundance here. A public footpath crosses the northern edge of the fell, while easier access follows woodland tracks to the south-west. The low limestone outcrops also attract boulderers to the site.