This lone hawthorn tree with its gnarled trunk has seemingly struggled to grow among the limestone pavement found in the Winskill Stones Nature Preserve, which is near Stainforth in the Yorkshire Dales National Park. Limestone pavement has been formed by rainwater over time eroding the limestone, weathering it to form deep fissures that divide the surface area into something that resembles erratically-shaped paving stones. The slabs of stone are known as clints and the fissures are called grykes. This was just one of several limestone pavement areas we visited, all of which had trees and other vegetation growing in the grykes.
