Solway coast – Southerness to Powillimount

Leader: Dr Chris Burton

The coastal section from Southerness to Powillimount within the Kirkbean Outlier forms part of the northern margin of the Solway-Northumbrian Basin which lies between the Southern Uplands to the north and the Lake District to the south. The northern margin of the basin is locally formed by the North Solway Fault, the basin itself being an extensional basin active during the Early Carboniferous (Dinantian). Synsedimentary faulting, downthrowing to the south, combined with cyclical sea-level changes to produce a wide range of sediments from open, shallow marine limestones and mudrocks to floodplain sandstones, silts and coals as the basin-fill developed. Faunas and floras responded to these changing conditions, and the excursion will track these responses and their resulting ecologies, as well as the various sedimentary structures to be seen, and also the tectonic structures imposed on the basin during the Late Carboniferous. Around 2 km of easy coastal walking.