The Festival of Geology 1 – 9 October 2022

This walk makes use of the bus between Reach and Burwell to travel one way and walk back (or you can arrange to car share and leave a car at each end). The walk will start in Reach around 10 -10:30 am (exact time to be announced, depending on the bus timetable). We will have a brief look at the Totternhoe Stone quarry site in Reach, before walking a section of the Devil’s Dyke earthworks – passing the site of a Roman villa. We then cut into Burwell via Pauline’s Swamp nature reserve where (assuming there has been some rain) we can see some chalk springs. After crossing Stephen’s castle, we stop at Castle Spring LGS to see a rare exposure of the base of the Totternhoe Stone before travelling uphill and up the rock succession to Carter’s Pit – a disused quarry once dug to win the famous Chalk ‘clunch’ (the Totternhoe Stone again). We then make our way through the village – passing several historic sites and taking in the variety of local building stones in the walls and houses. The walk finishes at the edge of the Fens, once more, near the old industrial wharves on the Catchwater, running into Burwell Lode.