The Whin Sill at Crag Lough, showing Hadrian's Wall running along the top.
The Whin Sill or Great Whin Sill is a tabular layer of the igneous rock dolerite in County Durham, Northumberland and Cumbria in the northeast of England. It lies partly in the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and partly in Northumberland National Park and stretches from Teesdale northwards towards Berwick.
It is one of the key natural features of the North Pennines. A major outcrop is at the High Force waterfall in Teesdale. Bamburgh Castle, Dunstanburgh Castle, Lindisfarne Castle and stretches of Hadrian's Wall all strategically take advantage of high, rocky cliff lines formed by the sill.
The Whin Sill complex is usually divided into three components: Holy Island Sill, Alnwick Sill and the Hadrian's Wall-Pennines Sill, which were created by separate magma flows, but at about the same time.[1]
The Little Whin Sill is an associated formation to the south, in Weardale.
^D. Liss, W.H. Owens and D.H.W. Hutton, New palaeomagnetic results from the Whin Sill complex: evidence for a multiple intrusion event and revised virtual geomagnetic poles for the late Carboniferous for the British Isles, Journal of the Geological Society; December 2004; v. 161; no. 6; p. 927–938; doi:10.1144/0016-764903-156, 2004 Geological Society of London, England
The WhinSill or Great WhinSill is a tabular layer of the igneous rock dolerite in County Durham, Northumberland and Cumbria in the northeast of England...
This section of the wall follows the edge of a cliff – an outcrop of the WhinSill – and several sharp dips in it caused by melting glacial waters. The tree...
England. At this point Hadrian's Wall is at the top of a line of crags, the WhinSill, with Crag Lough at the foot of the crags. The etymology of Crag Lough...
granite and andesite lava. A second area of igneous rock underlies the WhinSill (on which Hadrian's Wall runs), an intrusion of Carboniferous dolerite...
Carboniferous age. These are intruded by Permian dykes and sills, of which the WhinSill makes a significant impact in the south of the park. Further...
are a significant feature of the local landscape, and are part of the WhinSill. The walk along the rocky shore to the north along leads to the ruins...
public. Built on top of a black crag of volcanic dolerite, and part of the WhinSill, the location was previously home to a fort of the indigenous Celtic Britons...
Nature Reserve. High Force was formed where the River Tees crosses the WhinSill – a hard layer of igneous rock (also seen at Hadrian's Wall and other...
It is dramatically positioned on the end of the mile-long crag of the WhinSill over which the Wall runs, overlooking sparsely populated hills. It was...
falls are caused by the upper Tees passing over dolerite steps of the WhinSill. An engraving of a painting of the cataract by Thomas Allom was published...
Brewed lies just south of Hadrian's Wall, which runs along the top of the WhinSill ridge above the village to the north. The Roman fort of Vindolanda is...
Fell into June. Unusually for the Pennines, rock of igneous origin (the WhinSill) contributes to the surface geology and scenery of Upper Teesdale. Around...
(SSSI) in north Northumberland, England. The site is an outcropping of the WhinSill which gives rise to distinctive flora particular to the thin soil conditions...
sedimentary rocks laid down during the Palaeozoic era, later intruded by the WhinSill and affected by glaciation during the Quaternary period. Mud and volcanic...
unusually wide range of grassland types growing on thin soil above the WhinSill, a rock formation peculiar to the Northern Pennines. Allolee to Walltown...
striding eastwards from the lake at Crag Lough along the spine of the WhinSill. The remains of Haltwhistle Castle and the series of Bastles, and Haltwhistle...
with County Durham, the River Tees plunges 22 metres (72 ft) over the WhinSill (an intrusion of igneous rock). High Force is not, as is sometimes claimed...
England. High Cup Scar is formed by a near-horizontal outcrop of the WhinSill, a dolerite intrusion of late Carboniferous age which underlies much of...
along parts of its southeastern shore. The quartz-microgabbro of the WhinSill occupies the higher ground on this southeastern side of the bay. There...
Jurassic Coast – a UNESCO World Heritage Site Salisbury Plain Tees–Exe line WhinSill London Basin Hampshire Basin London-Brabant Massif Dartmoor – one of a...
Conversely, the Border Moors and Cheviot Hills, separated by the Tyne Gap and WhinSill, along which run the A69 and Hadrian's Wall, are not part of the Pennines...
of glacial till in the form of boulder clay lying on often outcropping WhinSill, a carboniferous limestone, with peat deposits, and, at the coast, wind-blown...
verses. Spindlestone Heugh (or Heughs) is a dolerite crag on the Great WhinSill escarpment in the parish of Easington, Northumberland. The Spindlestone...
yielded whinstone, a hard dark rock associated in Northumberland with the WhinSill. Longhoughton Quarry is situated 0.9 miles (1.4 km) west of Longhoughton...
coast. The castle is situated on a prominent headland, part of the Great WhinSill geological formation. On the south side of the castle there is a gentle...
the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland) Salisbury Plain Tees–Exe line WhinSill Siccar Point in Berwickshire provided early proof of the immense age of...
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