Kirtlington Virtual Trail

The area surrounding Kirtlington and Bletchingdon has a geological history that goes back about 165 million years through time, and the rocks, landscape and building stones that you can see along the trail tell us a lot of information about what this geological history was like. The area is underlain by Jurassic limestones, which are part of the Great Oolite Group and formed when Oxfordshire was submerged under a warm tropical sea. The limestone is packed full of the fossils of Jurassic creatures that thrived in these tropical conditions, including one or two dinosaurs! The area also provides lots of evidence for a much more recent geological event, the Ice Age, when powerful ancient rivers flowed through the area thousands of years ago. The rocks that outcrop here are very good for the production of cement, and there are many disused quarries in the area to remind us of this important industrial past.

Click on the map for more details about the trail