As part of the wildlife charity’s restoration work on the site, volunteers and estates staff spent last week dry stone walling (using a ready source of rock in the nearby stream) before moving to Carter Bar to measure soil/peat depth prior to possible footpath work and installing fencing to keep cattle out of an area of young trees.

Whitelee Moor is one of Britain’s most important upland nature reserves and is a Site of Specific Scientific Interest (SSSI) and a site of European Conservation Importance.

On the lower slopes of the reserve, the heather moorland is home to birds such as red grouse, merlin, buzzard, peregrine falcon, hen harrier, skylark, stonechat and meadow pipit. Insects such as the northern eggar moth and ringlet, small heath and green veined white butterflies are seen in the summer

Further down the slopes, wild goats, originally from domestic stock that have been left to roam wild for many centuries, can sometimes been seen on the border with Kielderhead.