Burton Bank Walk
Burton Bank RIGS Site
Burton Bank Regionally Important Geological Site (RIGS) can be seen from many parts of Barnsley town, lying on the opposite side of the valley to the Old Town Hall, between the A61 and the A633. It is open access, maintained by BMBC, with many surfaced footpaths, and there is a small car park off Newhill Road, to the north of the site.
Burton Bank Map
It is an old quarry complex, now back-filled and planted with many trees. However, the main walls of the quarry have been preserved and can easily be viewed. The rock is the Woolley Edge Rock, laid down in Carboniferous times, about 310 million years ago by an ancient river. Please remember when you visit, that this is a protected geological site. Do not hammer, or damage the rock faces.
This is such an important outcrop that in 2013 The International Conference on Fluvial Sedimentology (it means rocks deposited by ancient rivers) visited this site.
The best route is to use the closest access gate to Newhill Road, and go down the path to the bottom. Ahead of you is the main face where you can see many features of the Woolley Edge Rock, including faults, cross-beds, ripples, gravel layers, and the tilt of the rocks eastwards.
If you want more geological
details then go to the Woolley Edge Rock
case study page on this website.
If you hunt along the footpaths in Burton Bank, you will find a sandstone boulder with casts of Carboniferous plant fossils on it.
The main face in the south of Burton Bank
The "plant boulder" to be found somewhere along the paths
N.B. The inclusion of a site does not imply that there is any right of access. Some site features may be viewed from public roads and paths, but many sites are in private ownership and permissions from the landowner and/or land manager may be needed to visit more closely. Health and Safety risk assessments should be made prior to visiting all sites, to include such hazards as traffic, trip hazards or rock falls. SAGT takes no responsibility for any injury sustained, nor for any infringement of ownership rights, as a result of a site being described on this website.
