Raygill Fissure

Monday saw me go AWOL from work again. Main pretext was defrosting my mums freezer in Silsden, West Yorkshire - but this job was completed by 11am, leaving a free afternoon. This was conveniently spent fishing the ‘fly lake’ quarry at Raygill Fishing Lakes in nearby Lothersdale.

My predominant view whilst fishing there was this opposite bank and its reflection in the very calm lake somehow reminded me of those old inkblot ‘Rorschach tests’. In these, ‘percepts’ analyze a person's personality and emotional state. Looking sideways a lot (well, the fishing was not so prolific), I saw lots of animal (and invertebrate) faces in the stones of the reflected quarry cliff.

But maybe I am not that crazy as I read after in the fishery website that the history of Raygill is traced back to the Great Ice Age. The Yorkshire Geological and Polytechnic Society after discovery of a quarry pothole in late 19th century even made it famous in geological circles when it became known as the “Raygill Fissure" - or more precisely an ‘Ipswichian Interglacial Pothole’ no less! Animal bones found here included early elephants, hippopomus and lion.