COUNTRYSIDE campaigners are deploying some of the latest technology available to showcase natural wonders developed several millennia ago.

Limestone formations above Sheddon Clough, near Burnley, dating back to the last Ice Age, are detailed in the latest ‘podscrolls’ produced by Pennine Prospects.

For centuries East Lancashire folk used torrents of water to dislodge the limestone ‘hushings’, creating an unique landscape across the South Pennines.

Each ‘podscroll’ can be downloaded for free to a digital media player, including smartphones, and used as a portable guide book — or combined with an ‘audio trail’ for a full multi-media experience.

Under the Watershed Landscapes scheme, the Sheddon Clough guide is one of several bringing the hills and valleys between Lancashire and Yorkshire to life.

Anna Carter, inter-pretation officer, said: “We have several new resources that people can use to explore the upland landscape in the South Pennines.

“The podscrolls allow anyone with a smart phone to download guides that act as a visual aid alongside a traditional map. They offer an interesting way to interpret the landscape, bringing it to life for a new audience.”

The Burnley podscroll begins at Maiden’s Cross car park, off Long Causeway, Cliviger, and links in with Hurstwood and Cant Clough reservoirs.

Another popular resource being used is geo-caching, the orienteering pastime where searchers locate hidden stashes, buried within some of Lancashire’s most rugged terrain.

Carefully-secreted ‘caches’ have been left around Widdop and Gorple reservoirs by artists-in-residence, attached to the programme.

People wanting to find out more about the pdoscrolls and geo-caching can log on to watershedlandscape.co.uk