With the exception of the Dungannon Coalfield, there are very few rocks in Northern Ireland equivalent to the productive Coal Measures in Britain. This stream exposes such rocks and gives a glimpse of local conditions around 10 million years before the end of the Carboniferous period.
About 50 m of strata inclined at 75 to 80 degrees from the horizontal can be seen over exposures 250 m long. The rocks are mottled purple to red mudstones, siltstones and fossil soils from which 13 samples were collected and processed in the search for plant spores. Only two yielded positive results, the lower producing 10 species, the upper 13