Limestone

When you are walking in the White Peak, you are actually walking on the remains of dead sea creatures and plants. These remains which you see are in fact called FOSSILS. The plants and creatures lived 350 million years ago, when the area was covered by a warm, shallow, tropical sea that covered the whole of the Peak District, as we know it today. Just try and picture it - it's not easy is it?

As water flowed through the limestone, it formed CAVERNS and in many of these caves can be found STALACTITES and STALAGMITES.
Some dales were formed when caverns in the Limestone collapsed.

The pale colour of the limestone rock is what gives the White Peak its name. Limestone is quite a hard rock. In the White Peak you may pass a QUARRY, where limestone is quarried for road building, cement making and even for putting into your toothpaste.