Villamanin 2012

Fresh from the traumatic mapping reality of Skye, five of us travelled to the Cantabrian

Mountains in Spain for 6 weeks of fieldwork in Summer 2012. One group mapped the

geology of an area of 11km2 to the East of Villamanin (see Eleanor’s map), the other

mapped to the South of the town (see Sara’s map). Understanding the geology was quite a

challenge at first. We had to learn to recognise 12 units each of which had variability within

it and although there is quite a lot of literature on the stratigraphy, no two authors seemed

to agree and none of the descriptions offered seemed to match our rocks! Our area

spanned 1100-1960m in altitude and up to two hours walk was required to reach the

furthest parts. It was also a shock to the system not being able to ask a demonstrator when

we got stuck!

Anticlockwise from top left: perfect blue sky, clouds are an excitement; stripy wiggly rock beds; dust

road - waay better than the prickles on the hills; pretty spectacular views; bug.

Some of the rocks were quite confusing…

We found some nice fossils though.

Sock tan (/dirt) lines. Suncream and silly hats were compulsory!

Someone forgot her tracing paper for stereonets…

We were hosted by a children’s camp in Villamanin. Much to our astonishment, sharing a

single room cabin turned out not to lead to any arguments. We were fed three meals a day,

and, after 6 weeks it was quite a shock when we got home to remember that not every

dinner was served with chips. This and visits to the local restaurant and bars gave us a great

taste of the local food and drink (summary: keen on meat, not keen on vegetables). On one

of our days off we also went on a tourist trip to Leon where we particularly enjoyed a visit to

the magnificent 13th

century cathedral.

Dressing up with some of the kids

The wildlife was not quite what we were used to. We encountered deer, lizards, snakes, a

praying mantis and Griffon vultures. We were less enthusiastic to become familiar with

multiple types of thistle, rose and gorse and soon learned the value of long trousers and

gaiters!

A reconstruction of what happened when a cow tried to eat our lunch in the field one day… It turned

out that moving our bags was easier than moving the cow.

Overall this was a useful and enjoyable experience, with the fieldwork part rather more

enjoyable than the writing it up part! We will now have much more confidence about

fieldwork and organising any kind of project in the future and returned home with lots of

lessons learned and stories to tell. We managed to raise almost exactly the same amount

from funding as we spent and we are very grateful to the Class of 2005 for their support.

Many thanks,

Eleanor Ainscoe, Ruth Wheatley,

Sarah Robinson, Sara Sjosten

and Claudia Haindl. March 2013