'A lifetime experience and visual masterpiece in a prehistoric land' Greenhow’s Coldstone’s Quarry

Since the 17th century, and surrounded by prehistoric landscapes, Coldstones Quarry has been extracting mineral rich materials, historical artefacts, and one of Yorkshire’s greatest exports - Limestone.

Climbing 1400 feet above sea level, it is one of the highest quarries in Britain, and comes with its own special weather warning.

Greenhow is a must-see alien-like land, which transports you to a time long before today’s modern world existed.

Known as ‘limestone country’, the hard sedimentary rock has long been a characteristic of The Yorkshire Dales.

Greenhow Trail, which circles the quarry, takes walkers back in time to 300-350 million years ago when the landscape was under tropical waters.

Known for maintaining a strong relationship with local communities, Coldstones Quarry provides on site tours to schools and other interested groups.

Back in 1992, I was one of the excited school children visiting the quarry, and I must confess, it was a little strange to find myself there again.

Met by a cheerful Richard Green, and feeling out of my depth, I asked him what had changed over time.

He said: “We’ve relocated the entire processing plant and operation in what was one of the biggest single investments in a site over the past 30 years.

“During the second world war extraction at the quarry was ramped up to supply aggregate to airfields.

“Employees either stay with us for 3 weeks, or 30 years.

“We’ve got many second-generation employees; it's like a family.

Overlooking the quarry is a visual masterpiece - The Cold Stone’s Cut.

A monumental art installation by Andrew Sabin in collaboration with Nidderdale Visual Arts now attracting around 30,000 visitors annually.

Mr Green said: “Our relationship with the community is really important.

“We are committed to supporting local initiatives and invested a good amount into the Christmas lights last year, free to the public.”

In a cabinet of artefacts I noticed a clay pipe commemorating an illegal bare knuckle fight between Tom Sayers and John Heenan in 1860, there was a real sense that history and community mattered.

With joy and bafflement in equal measure Mr Green said: “We’ve had the film industry use the site and some phenomenal collaborations with universities.

“No day is ever the same.”

Coldstones has a 15 year accident free certification, a detail that made me feel in safe hands as we headed down.

We approached the top and peered down 100 metres.

Mr Green joked about Greenhow’s brutal weather conditions and described the extraction process in terms I could understand.

He said: “We endeavour to be a good neighbour, working hard to provide vital construction materials while minimising our impact on the local area.

“We work hard to protect and enhance the local environment.

“We try to be as sympathetic as possible to the wildlife that settle here.”

Due to rainfall a tropical turquoise pool lay at the bottom, with beautiful intricate layers of sedimentary rock, I could see why the arts industries wanted to shoot there.

The quarry continues to provide a stable income for communities, and is surrounded by phenomenal barren landscape.

Quite simply, a must-have lifetime experience.