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The chief geological feature of the farm park
is Ordovician Rock. This consists of an attractive dark blue-grey slate
that can be seen most clearly on the cliff faces. It is sedimentary rock
originally lain as a marine sediment, hence its layered structure. Geological
movement in the distant past turned these layers on their sides so that
they are now at almost 90 degrees to the horizontal. This layered structure
accounts for the many caves below the farm park as the forces of nature
- freezing percolating rain water in the cold winters and the constant
pounding waves of the sea - gradually, over thousands of years, erode
the rock, allowing voids, or caves, to be formed.
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This erosion also caused the island to be formed
as the sea gradually ate its way through softer areas of rock. Later on,
ice age glaciations, the last about 10,000 years ago, blocked the mouth
of the River Teifi, thereby forming 'Lake Teifi' as far inland as Lampeter.
During this period 'LakeTeifi' is thought to have drained to the sea via
the Nevern valley, the Gwaun valley and the western Cleddau into Milford
Haven. The glaciations deposited gravels and rounded stones here. Some
of our fields have gravel deposits more than 30 feet deep. Stones, rounded
by the sea, consisting of rocks from Northern Ireland and beyond, can
be found all over the farm. Sometimes they can be 5 feet or more in diameter.
It can often be a problem to remove them, which is necessary, since they
damage the farm machinery.
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