NORTHUMBERLAND WILDLIFE TRUST
[Northern England]
Nearest Town: Harbottle
OS Map: NT922040 (OS 50 000 Sheet 80)
This 158ha site comprises open moorland with sandstone outcrops and crags.
Location and access: The site is 1km south west of Harbottle. Car parking at the adjacent Forestry Commission car park. To get there, travel west through Harbottle village, and after 500 metres turn left into the car park. There is a footpath from the car park which leads uphill and onto the reserve through a gate. The army's red flag, which normally flies near the gate, does not apply to the reserve, but do not pass the MOD signs at the reserve boundary. Please keep to the marked paths.
The nature reserve is an area of beautiful open moorland and includes the Drake Stone, where nearby rocks have been scratched and polished by the ice sheet of the last glaciation. The site is largely covered by upland heather heath and contains outcrops of sandstones in the Fell Sandstone Group, with north-facing coarse gritstone crags. There are old millstone quarries around the site with broken and part-completed stones visible. The peat bog at the eastern end of the lough has formed from a layer of sphagnum moss growing over deep water. Please keep away from the water’s edge. The bog flora includes the carnivorous round-leaved sundew whilst the damp flushes contain bog myrtle. Look out in the summer for the large heath butterfly and the emperor moth. The site is managed in association with the Forestry Commission.