Whin Sill

The Whin Sill or Great Whin Sill is a tabular layer of the igneous rock dolerite in County Durham and Northumberland in the northeast of England. It lies partly in the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and partly in Northumberland National Park and stretches from Teesdale northwards towards Berwick.

It is one of the key natural features of the North Pennines. A major outcrop is at the High Force waterfall in Teesdale. Bamburgh Castle, Dunstanburgh Castle, Lindisfarne Castle and stretches of Hadrian's Wall all strategically take advantage of high, rocky cliff lines formed by the sill.

The Whin Sill complex is usually divided into three components: Holy Island Sill, Alnwick Sill and the Hadrian's Wall-Pennines Sill, which were created by separate magma flows but about the same time.

The Little Whin Sill is an associated formation to the south in Weardale.

Much of the early study of geology began in the British Isles, whence much of the terminology is derived. Quarrymen of Northern England used the term 'sill' to describe a more or less horizontal body of rock. 'Whin' was applied to dark, hard rocks. As the intrusive igneous origin of the Whin Sill was determined in the 19th century, the term 'sill' was adopted by geologists for concordant, tabular intrusive bodies.

Towards the close of Carboniferous Period some 295 million years ago (Ma), crustal extension caused by movement of the Earth’s tectonic plates allowed the emplacement of igneous intrusions of magma across much of northern England of a suite of tholeiitic dolerite intrusions. These were largely concordant with the strata of the existing country rock. On cooling, these crystallised and solidified to form the Great Whin Sill.

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