Fragments of Limestone Pavement. These 'pavements' were first exposed during the last ice age. The crevices or Grykes provide shelter, shade and moisture for plants that prefer damp and dark environments. There is around 8000 acres of Limestone Pavement in Britain and Ireland which is a significant proportion all existing limestone pavement.

A small area of Limestone Pavement on the western tip of the Great Orme. Conditions for limestone pavements are created when an advancing glacier scrapes away overburden and exposes horizontally bedded limestone, with subsequent glacial retreat leaving behind a flat, bare surface.

Limestone is slightly soluble in water and especially in acid rain, so corrosive drainage along joints and cracks in the limestone can produce slabs called clints isolated by deep fissures called grikes or grykes. If the grykes are fairly straight and the clints are uniform in size, the resemblance to man-made paving stones is striking, but often they are less regular as shown here.

More limestone pavement. Most limestone pavement is grazed, and the rock surface supports little if any vegetation. However ferns and other plants, typical of rocky habitats or woodlands, flourish in the damp grykes out of the reach of grazing animals.