Hawkstone Park

The park covers approximately 100 acres (40 hectares) of forest with dramatic sandstone formations dating back over 230 million years to the Triassic.

The geology of Hawkstone Park was formed during the Triassic period, when the area lay between 20 and 30 degrees north of the equator in the supercontinent Pangaea. The climate at that time was dry and desert-like, comparable to the modern Sahara. The sandstone was deposited by braided rivers or by the wind as sand dunes.

A remarkable geological feature is the copper mineralization dating from the Tertiary, approximately 100 million years after the faulting. Hot fluids rich in copper and barite moved through the groundwater and crystallized in the sandstones, particularly along fault lines. In the caves, you can see green malachite stains (copper carbonate) as evidence of this earlier copper mining, possibly even dating back to Roman times.

Pascal Brackman