Skipton Castle Woods

Saturday 29th April 2023

Leader: Ian Dyson

Number of attendees: 22

As this was our annual meal outing, we met at the later time of 1:30pm, at the canal side, under the weeping willow, near to Skipton Castle. We started the walk along Eller Beck, which flows through a deeply incised valley, overlooked by the imposing Skipton Castle. Following the footpath, we made our way slowly towards the woods. On the way we noted various grasses, ferns, trees, and wildflowers including Brittle Bladder Fern (Cystopteris fragilis) and Alan’s favourite “wooden enemies” (Wood Anemone, Anemone nemorosa).

A lot of the plants were out of reach, due to the beck being much lower than the fenced path, but it was still very interesting, and it took about an hour to get to the gate at the entrance to the woods. Eller Beck also flows through the woods and contains several dammed pools and a weir.

Once in the woods, we immediately noticed the abundant Wild Garlic (Allium ursinum), covering the banks on both sides of the path. We still managed to find plenty of other plants, in amongst the garlic, which thinned out, the further we got into the woods. These included Woodruff (Galium odoratum) and Hard Shield-fern (Polystichum aculeatum).

We followed the path through the woods, finding a good variety of spring species, including Toothwort (Lathraea squamaria), Marsh-marigold (Caltha palustris), Herb-paris (Paris quadrifolia), Goldilocks Buttercup (Ranunculus auricomus) and Moschatel (Adoxa moschatellina).

Once we got to the far end, we crossed the beck and followed the path up to the top of the woods where we found a small amount of Coralroot (Cardamine bulbifera) and a good display of flowering Blackthorn (Prunus spinosa).

After a good inspection of the area, we made our way back down to the lower path, where our group split to go to various car parks, before meeting up at the Craven Heifer for our annual meal.

Text by Paula

Photographs by Ian D and Alan