Clintz Quarry
Clintz Quarry Nature Reserve is the remains of an old limestone quarry that provided lime and iron ore for local industry.
In the 1600's it was the source of agricultural lime used on the farm land around Egremont. In the 1800's both lime stone and iron 
ore mining were increased to supply the emerging steel industry.
Clintz is named after the blocks of lime stone left in the quarry basin, traditionally known as 'Clints' or 'Clintz'.
Clintz Quarry is ASSSI owned and managed by The Cumbria Wildlife Trust who purchased the land from Lord Egremont and British Steel in 1984 when it had been disused for some fifty years.
Clintz had such a remarkable and unusual diversity of habitats, ranging from bare rock to limestone woodland, that in 1969 it became a Site of Special Scientific Interest. This status was awarded because of its plant life although the geology at the quarry would almost certainly qualify in its own right.
The Trust management programme protects the areas of scrub, woodland, shallow and deep water, large angular rocks, spoil heaps and cliff faces that provide a varied habitat for flora and fauna.
About 350 million years ago it was under a tropical sea and today fossils of creatures such as coral can be seen in the quarry walls and over the years silt and animals skeletons have left distinctive bands in the rock.
The quarry is filled with quaking grass, oat grass, oxeye daises, the spectacular bee orchid with its unusually shaped flowers, and the vivid pink pyramidal orchid, a Cumbria rarity. On the rock face and between crevices grow many ferns including hart's tongue.
Fauna includes pools harbour sticklebacks, palmate newts, frogs, beetles and common blue, meadow brown and gatekeeper butterflies.
In damper parts of quarry the pale pink common spotted orchid, the deeper pink northern marsh orchid and occasionally their hybrid are present. Sedges and rushes are common here, as are tufted hair grass and hemp agrimony.
Bluebell, dog's mercury, enchanter's nightshade, early purple orchids and common twayblade orchids populate the woodland. Many mosses, fungi, lichens and moulds can be found growing on the trees, spoil heaps and rock faces.
Robins, goldcrests, long-tailed tits and sometimes treecreepers inhabit the quarry whilst kestrels and ravens nest on the quarry face. The pools harbour stickleback, palmate newt and common frog.
The reserve is open at all times and is on the Egremont Whitehaven cycleway adjacent to the A5086 north of Egremont.
It is advisable to have good footwear as the quarry is steep and can be slippery. Care must be taken when moving around the areas of very deep water in the quarry. Visitors are requested to keep to the paths and not to remove any flowers, fossils or animals so protecting the reserve for future generations to enjoy.
Find out more about orchids and the Royal Horticultural Society
