Kake­led

On the south-west slo­pe of Kin­ne­kul­le is the aban­do­ned quar­ry of Kake­led. The rock here is a dark, almost black sha­le cal­led alum shale.

It was for­med by clay par­ticles that were slowly depo­si­ted (around 5 mm eve­ry thousand years) at the bot­tom of a sea. Orga­nic mate­ri­al was also depo­si­ted on the sea bed with the clay. The high orga­nic con­tent of the sha­le meant that it could be used as a fuel for lime-bur­ning. Dotted around the quar­ry you see tra­ces of lime-bur­ning, inclu­ding old kilns and red mounds of bur­ned shale.

At the bot­tom of the eas­tern wall is a dark grey limesto­ne which, if you look clo­se­ly, is full of fos­sils. The­se fos­sils con­si­st main­ly of small art­hro­pods (tri­lo­bi­tes). Other are­as of the quar­ry also con­tain fos­sils, and the­se show the diver­si­ty of life that existed in the sea.

NOTE! Remem­ber that the­se rocks have been here for many mil­li­ons of years and that many peop­le want to expe­ri­ence this loca­tion after you. Ple­a­se do not take rocks away, do not remo­ve loo­se rocks from the quar­ry faces, and do not use a geo­lo­gy ham­mer to bre­ak rocks.