Upper Teesdale

Monday 8^th to Wednesday 10^th June: Upper Teesdale

Monday 8^th June: Cetry Bank

Leaders: Lizzie Maddison and John O’Reilly

Cetry Bank is a very interesting area near Widdybank Farm. It contains many species found in the Teesdale Assemblage.

Meet at 10:30 at a small parking area immediately to the side of the Langdon Beck Hotel, DL12 0XP. From here we will reduce cars and travel on to park at Widdybank Farm, where there are toilets.

Cetry Bank is steep in places and requires care when scrambling on the bank. However, many of the species can be found at the bottom of the bank near the river edge which is accessible without climbing.

In spring the bank is blue with Spring Gentians Gentiana verna, they will be over by June, but their tiny rosettes can be readily spotted. Alpine Bartsia Bartsia alpina, Bird’s-eye Primrose Primula farinosa, Northern Marsh-orchids Dactylorhiza purpurella, Yellow Saxifrage Saxifraga aizoides, Alpine Bistort Bistorta vivipara, Common Rock-rose Helianthemum nummularium all flourish here along with a range of sedges.

Tuesday 9^th June: River bank, Low Force to High Force

Leaders: Lizzie Maddison and Linda Robinson

Meet at 10:30 at Bowlees car park, DL12 0XE The car park is behind the visitor centre/café where there are toilets. We will meet in the car park then walk down through 2 hay meadows to reach the river at Low Force. From here we will walk along the river path to High Force

Many species of interest can be found here including Northern Bedstraw Galium boreale, Fragrant Orchids Gymnadenia conopsea, Alpine Saw-wort Saussurea alpina, Goldenrod Solidago virgaurea, a Horsetail Equisetum sp. and Shrubby Cinquefoil Dasiphora fruticosa.

We will also search for some rarer species including, Alchemilla glomerulans, Alchemilla wichurae and Hieracium bakeranum.

Wednesday 10^th June: A coastal walk on the magnesium-limestone from Noses Point, Seaham to Hawthorn Dene.

Leader: Keith Robson

Coastal flora on Durham’s Magnesian Limestone grasslands.

Nose’s Point is a double Site of Special Scientific Interest for its geology and ecology, and we will walk through its rare form of grassland with its unique Magnesian Limestone flora.

Meet at 10:30 at the southern end of Nose’s Point car park, south of Seaham off the A182 coast road SR7 7PS Grid Ref: NZ436479, what3words ///managed.splinters.corals. As well as your packed lunch wear sturdy footwear. However there are footpaths all along the route.

Plants present here that we should see include Small Scabious Scabiosa columbaria, Burnet Rose Rosa pimpinellifolia, Bloody Cranesbill Geranium sanguineum , Common and Spiny Restharrow Ononis repens and O. spinosa, Dyer’s Greenweed Genista tinctoria, Blue Moor-grass Sesleria caerulea, Pale St John’s Wort Hypericum montanum and several species of orchid, including, perhaps, Dactylorhiza x mixta, the rare hybrid between Common Spotted Dactylorhiza fuchsii and Frog Orchid Dactylorhiza viridis.

To book, contact Janet John wfs.meetings@gmail.com