Scargill House, Kettlewell

Saturday 8^th June 2019

Leader: Nyree Fearnley

On a rather damp morning 8 of us met at Scargill House, near Kettlewell. It was fine when we met and we set off up the path into the woods. In the wood there was Enchanter’s Nightshade and quite a few pretty Bugle. In a more open area there was Bird’s-foot Trefoil, Rockrose, Crosswort, Bush vetch, and just above on a steep hillside Northern Bedstraw which is not too common.

As we got to the gate into the open hillside that is called The Meadow the rain started to come down in earnest, and we waited a while under the shelter of the large Beech trees but it didn’t look like stopping. So we decided to turn round and take the higher path through the middle of the woods and see if the rain eased off. 4 people left at this point, and 4 of us carried on. The rain did ease but as we were quite close to the Centre we dropped back down to eat dinner in the beautiful Walled Garden. There were lots of pretty flowers in here but we didn’t add them to the records as these are Garden Plants.

It was still pretty wet so rather than walk all the way back up onto the hillside we just had a look in a small meadow area below the Centre. This was lovely with colour from Red Clover, Creeping Buttercup, Pignut, Yellow Rattle, Quaking Grass, and Yorkshire Fog. We also saw several Chimney Sweeper moths, a pretty dark-coloured moth.

The rain was starting to come heavier again so we decided to call it a day. It is a wonderful site though and the staff were very welcoming, and we still saw some nice plants, so an enjoyable day in good company.

Text and photographs by Nyree Fearnley