Burton Dasset Hills
Location and Access Information
Grid Reference: SP 395522
This disused quarry is located in the Burton Dasset Hills Country Park, to the south-east of the village of Northend, 10km north-west of Banbury. The site is owned by Warwickshire County Council and is a Regionally Important Geological and Geomorphological Site (RIGS). Car parking is available on site.
View the site map on Nature on the Map
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Geological Interest
The disused quarry at this site provides exposure through Lower Jurassic and Middle Jurassic rocks approximately 200-180 million years old. The Marlstone Rock (Middle Lias) is exposed in the old quarry located 200m south-west of Windmill Hill and is overlain by clays of the Upper Lias. These sediments were originally deposited in a shallow sea and contain the fossils of marine organisms such as brachiopods and ammonites. The clays of the Upper Lias form the steep slope that rise up to the highest point of the hills where it is capped by the harder Northampton Sand which belongs to the Middle Jurassic Inferior Oolite.
