Picture of the month

Comment:

This photograph is taken across land where cereals are being harvested. The field is adjacent to Birkrigg Common. It is almost certain that the land being harvested would at one time have been bracken covered moorland like the land on the near side of the limestone wall from where the photograph is taken. Quite possibly this transition to productive agricultural land would have occurred at the time of enclosure. Looking carefully at the wall it will be seen that the limestone rocks are angular with distinct edges as a consequence of having been quarried from the bedrock in this same locality, but occasionally rounded boulders can be seen which are of a different colour, slightly towards brown. These are rocks brought by glacial ice from the southern Lake District which would then be left behind as the ice melted, later to be picked from the land by the wall builders. It will be seen that these rocks are rounded as a result of the grinding they would receive as they were dragged along and rotated by the ice.