[tomtom]

The floor of Ben’s is an old lava flow

Is it not limestone then? I assumed it was flowstone?

My bad - its a sill. (intrusive rather than surface flow) - but most definitely NOT limestone...

[SA Chris]

Whilst nuking it from orbit (Aliens) would also work, how about excavating? The floor of Ben’s is an old lava flow - so depending how thick it is - you could dig down a few M and add a volcanic start turning all the cave/lip problems into routes. Recon you could go down about 5-8 m before you’d need to pump it out…

I've wondered about taking high pressure water guns like those used in hydraulic mining to the bottom of some moorland boulders and crags to speed up the erosion process a bit. make them a few feet taller. It's happening anyway, just not fast enough.

[DAVETHOMAS90]

The floor of Ben’s is an old lava flow

Is it not limestone then? I assumed it was flowstone?

My bad - its a sill. (intrusive rather than surface flow) - but most definitely NOT limestone...

Vesicular basalt. init.

Bit like this from Mull:

https://www.virtualmicroscope.org/content/vesicular-basalt-isle-mull

Someone is selling slices of vesicular basalt on EBay at a fiver each. Some profit to be made from excavating Ben's too!

Some of the "chipping"/rock damage that occurs, is due to geology students heading out for samples with their hammers, and not noticing what's limestone/basalt. Not that they should be doing that anyway. They'd need a rock drill for the dynamite..

[mrjonathanr]

Interesting, didn’t know that. Damned uncomfortable as a mattress, that I do know!