Fragments of what once was
If you’re a regular visitor to the Yorkshire Dales, you’ll know Ingleborough, a brooding sentinel between Ribblesdale and Chapel-le-Dale, shoulders draped in peat, limestone pavement carpeting its flanks.
As one of Yorkshire’s Three Peaks, it’s a beacon for walkers; the urgency of completing a triple-summit marathon in 12 hours, though, can mean that many of the mountain’s astonishing natural treasures are overlooked.
Scar Close is unlike any limestone pavement in the UK, possibly the world; Salt Lake Quarry is a haven for wildflowers – bird’s-foot trefoil, marsh valerian, common spotted-orchid, frog orchid… Remote limestone crags, out of reach of grazing sheep, harbour the fragments of Yorkshire’s remaining spiked speedwell population; blanket bog wraps Ingleborough’s sub-summits in sphagnum moss and cottongrass; while winter sees visiting flocks of snow bunting bustling across the upper slopes in search of seeds.
As magical as these wildlife spectacles are, they are pockets, fragments of what once was, separated by sheep pasture. If there were some way to link these fragments together – tessellate them into a mosaic rather than a splotched canvas – couldn’t Ingleborough be greener, richer, wilder?
The birth of Wild Ingleborough
In 2021, Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, Natural England, WWF-UK, University of Leeds, United Bank of Carbon, and Woodland Trust united to make this happen and Wild Ingleborough was born. Across the mountain, the partnership is targeting action to maximise benefits not just for species but for habitats.
Encouraging natural regeneration
Ingleborough's famed limestone pavement would once have been rich with ferns, mosses, wildflowers, and shrubs. We're using extensive cattle-grazing to support and encourage natural regeneration of plants and return Ingleborough's pavement to its former glory.
Our tree planting has focussed on linking up existing fragments of woodland and introducing fingers of native trees and montane shrub species up the fell in gills and watercourses where there is currently no seed source.
By propagating rare and fragile upland plants in our dedicated upland nursery, we hope to restore and recover dwindling populations and introduce them to new areas of Ingleborough.
The spiked speedwell presented a particular challenge given the inaccessibility of the one population on Ingleborough; the crag that had kept it safe from grazing was also protecting it from proliferation across other crags. We had to rely on some crag-savvy colleagues to very carefully navigate the steep ground around the plants to safely harvest their seeds. The safely collected seed was sewn and germinated in our nursery and then planted out once the seedlings were hardened off.
Belted Galloways – a secret weapon
We are moving away from sheep on the nature reserve and instead deploying cattle. This form of low-intensity grazing on our grasslands allows vegetation to recover and plants to re-establish, creating cover for ground-nesting birds. Belted Galloways are a hardy cattle breed, small but sturdy, shaggy against the cold and adapted to the harsh conditions of Ingleborough. They graze non-selectively, which is to say that they are not fussy eaters. This is good for creating diverse, flower-rich swards; they can also push through scrub and eat taller, coarser vegetation; their hoof prints create microhabitats for plants and insects; while their dung is a magnet for the invertebrates and fungi that form the foundation of the food-web.
Access to Nature
At Wild Ingleborough, we work with local primary schools to encourage children to connect with the wildlife and landscape on their doorstep. Our Access to Nature Fund supports groups from across the region to visit the area, whatever their support needs. Last year our beneficiaries included five local primary schools and community groups – who specifically support people from a particular ethnic minority or with a range of issues stemming from poverty, from poor physical and mental health to social isolation.
This year, we are delighted that Inntravel is supporting Access to Nature. Thanks to their generosity, we are able to offer grants of up to £1,500 to 20 groups experiencing barriers to accessing the Ingleborough area – whether these are financial, physical, or socio-cultural. Through the Fund, we will support groups to not only bring their participants for a great day out, but to look at how these barriers can be broken down in the future, and to connect their groups with the wildlife, nature, and landscape of our part of the Dales.
A beacon for wildness
Our work at Wild Ingleborough will gather momentum until its wildlife and plants no longer need our intervention. We know this will take years, but recovery of this regional heritage icon must start now, because if you create the right conditions in even the smallest space, wildlife will find a home.
Because it will take years, we’re immensely grateful to Inntravel for their long-term support, for sharing our vision that Ingleborough can and should be wilder than the sum of its parts. Instead of being a beacon just for walkers, Ingleborough can be a beacon for wildness, for how we make a landscape whole again, a flourishing home for wildlife but also for people earning a living, creating, and recreating.
If you’re reading this, there’s a good chance you’re a walker. We hope you’ll visit Ingleborough and that, instead of yomping up through Humphrey Bottom before tipping down the long 7.5 kilometres back to Horton, you’ll take your time and explore Ingleborough for itself – for its magic, for its wildness.
