This is a list of local nature reserves (LNR) in North Yorkshire. The list accounts for the post-1974 area of North Yorkshire, and includes the local authority areas of Middlesbrough and Redcar and Cleveland as well as the City of York. As such, it includes areas in places such as Harrogate, that prior to 1974, were in the historic county of the West Riding of Yorkshire. [1]
Local nature reserves (LNRs) are designated by local authorities under the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949. The local authority must have a legal control over the site, by owning or leasing it or having an agreement with the owner. LNRs are sites which have a special local interest either biologically or geologically, and local authorities have a duty to care for them. They can apply local bye-laws to manage and protect LNRs. [2] [3] As of May 2018, North Yorkshire has 18 designated local nature reserves. [4]
Site | Photograph | Area | Location | Declaring authority | Coordinates | Description | Ref |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Acomb Wood and Meadow | 4.32 acres (1.75 ha) | Acomb | York City Council | 53°56′14.0″N1°07′59.0″W / 53.937222°N 1.133056°W | Site was designated in March 2007. | [5] | |
Ballowfield | ![]() | 2.3 acres (0.93 hectares) | Carperby | Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority | 54°18′18.5″N2°01′28.5″W / 54.305139°N 2.024583°W | The site is noted for its Spring Sandwort population (Metallophytes) which are in abundance on former lead workings, especially at Ballowfield, but quite rare across Britain. | [6] |
Barlow Common | ![]() | 90 acres (36.6 hectares) | Barlow | North Yorkshire Council | 53°45′04.9″N1°02′38.2″W / 53.751361°N 1.043944°W | The site was used as a spoil and ballast tip by the railways until 1983. A lake was created as part of the remediation of the site and Selby District Council took over running the site in 1986 (the site is now run by the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust). It was declared a LNR in 2002. | [7] [8] [9] |
Birk Crag | ![]() | 27 acres (11 ha) | Harrogate | North Yorkshire Council | 53°59′12.3″N1°34′43.3″W / 53.986750°N 1.578694°W | Birk Crag is 1 mile (1.6 km) to the south west of Harrogate and is one of only two places in Britain that has a resident population of the endangered click beetle. The site was designated as an LNR in January 1993. | [10] [11] |
Cleatop Park | ![]() | 35.8 acres (14.47 hectares) | Settle | Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority | 54°02′41.5″N2°16′37.6″W / 54.044861°N 2.277111°W | Just over 1 mile (1.6 km) south of Settle, the reserve was designated in June 2006. | [12] [13] |
Clifton Backies | ![]() | 45.9 acres (18.58 hectares) | York | York City Council | 53°58′44.8″N1°05′31.2″W / 53.979111°N 1.092000°W | Largely sited on a former RAF Clifton airfield, the site was designated in 2002. | [14] |
Farndale Local Nature Reserve | 157 hectares (388 acres) | Farndale, Ryedale | North York Moors National Park Authority | 54°21′32.1″N0°58′18.8″W / 54.358917°N 0.971889°W | Farndale was designated as an LNR in 1955 | [15] | |
Foxglove Covert | ![]() | 100 acres (40 ha) | Catterick Garrison, Richmondshire | North Yorkshire Council | 54°22′05.7″N1°45′15.0″W / 54.368250°N 1.754167°W | Opened in 1992, visitors need to go through the Garrison security to access the reserve. Site was the first LNR on Ministry of Defence land and the first LNR in Richmondshire. | [16] |
Freeholders Wood and Riddings Field | ![]() | 31 acres (13 ha) | Aysgarth | Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority | 54°17′44.6″N1°58′48.7″W / 54.295722°N 1.980194°W | Is located on the northern side of the River Ure east of Aysgarth. The woodlands are hundreds of years old. | [17] |
Hell Wath | ![]() | 21.9 acres (8.88 hectares) | Ripon | North Yorkshire Council | 54°07′45.2″N1°32′18.7″W / 54.129222°N 1.538528°W | Designated in 1993, Hell Wath is a nature reserve to the west of the city of Ripon and alongside the River Skell. | [18] |
Hob Moor | ![]() | 89 acres (36 hectares) | York | York City Council | 53°56′48.7″N1°06′47.4″W / 53.946861°N 1.113167°W | Designated in 2003, Hob Moor is one of the Strays of York; and ancient common just south west of the city centre of York. The moor has cattle grazing upon it and has not been improved or had fertiliser spread over it in its history. | [19] |
Hookstone Wood | ![]() | 18.7 acres (7.56 hectares) | Harrogate | North Yorkshire Council | 53°58′50.2″N1°30′57.6″W / 53.980611°N 1.516000°W | 2 miles (3.2 km) south-east of Harrogate town centre, Hookstone Wood is an important woodland site for damselflies and dragonflies. The site was designated in 1993. | [20] |
Langcliffe and Attermire | ![]() | 50 acres (20 ha) | Langcliffe | Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority | 54°04′41.9″N2°14′48.4″W / 54.078306°N 2.246778°W | Declared in 2004, the reserve is noted for its stone and the grasses and flowers that grow in and around them. | [21] |
Nosterfield | ![]() | 60 acres (24 ha) [note 1] [22] | West Tanfield | North Yorkshire Council | 54°12′42.3″N1°34′34.3″W / 54.211750°N 1.576194°W | Nosterfield is a former sand and gravel quarry north east of West Tanfield and just west of Thornborough Henges. It was declared in June 2006 and is run by the Lower Ure Conservation Trust (LUCT). The first Bittern recorded in North Yorkshire was at Nosterfield. | [23] [24] [25] |
Quarry Moor | ![]() | 23 acres (9.2 hectares) | Ripon | North Yorkshire Council | 54°07′11.5″N1°31′40.5″W / 54.119861°N 1.527917°W | The site was donated to the city in 1945 and designated as an LNR in January 2001. It is of national significance because of its magnesian limestone bedrock which allows diverse plants to grow. The site is owned and operated by Ripon City Council. | [26] [27] |
St Nicholas Fields | ![]() | 24 acres (9.7 ha) | York | City of York Council | 53°57′27.0″N1°03′43.1″W / 53.957500°N 1.061972°W | Opened in 2004, St Nicholas Fields was previously the landfill site for the City of York. It stopped receiving waste in 1974 and during the 1980s was subject to a clean-up campaign. It was awarded LNR status in 2004 | [28] [29] |
The Dell | ![]() | 14 acres (5.5 hectares) | Eastfield, Scarborough | North Yorkshire Council | 54°15′36.9″N0°25′39.7″W / 54.260250°N 0.427694°W | Designated in October 2012, The Dell is an urban fringe that has been adorned with chainsaw sculptures. | [30] |
Brimham Rocks, once known as Brimham Crags, is a 183.9-hectare (454-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and Geological Conservation Review (GCR) site, 8 miles (13 km) north-west of Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England, on Brimham Moor in the Nidderdale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The site, notified as SSSI in 1958, is an outcrop of Millstone Grit, with small areas of birch woodland and a large area of wet and dry heath.
Goonhilly Downs is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) that forms a raised plateau in the central western area of the Lizard peninsula in southern Cornwall, UK. It is one of 229 English national nature reserves designated by Natural England with an area of almost 1,270 hectares.
Bishop Monkton is a village and civil parish in the Harrogate district of North Yorkshire, England, about five miles south of Ripon. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 775, increasing slightly to 778 at the 2011 Census. In 2015, North Yorkshire County Council estimated the population to be 760.
Farndale Local Nature Reserve is a Local Nature Reserve (LNR) in the valley of Farndale, North Yorkshire, England. It is located within the North York Moors National Park region and is looked after by the North York Moors National Park Authority (NYMNPA). The LNR attracts thousands of visitors in the springtime, who go to see the wild daffodils on display in the valley.
Lesnes Abbey Woods, sometimes known as Abbey Wood, is a 73 ha ancient woodland in southeast London, England. It is located near to, and named after, the ruined Lesnes Abbey in the London Borough of Bexley and gives its name to the Abbey Wood district. The woods are adjacent to Bostall Woods.
The Bottoms is a Site of Special Scientific Interest in County Durham, England. It lies just south of the A181 road, roughly midway between the villages of Cassop and Wheatley Hill, some 10 km south-east of Durham city.
Foxglove Covert is a Local Nature Reserve (LNR) located on Catterick Garrison in North Yorkshire, England and is on the eastern edge of the Yorkshire Dales. The reserve was created in 1992 by The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards who had just returned from the First Gulf War. The reserve has been visited by royalty and has won many awards for its activities.
Hay-a-Park Gravel Pit is a Site of Special Scientific Interest, or SSSI, adjacent to the east side of the town of Knaresborough, North Yorkshire, England. Having been a disused and flooded quarry since the 1970s, it now consists of the large Hay-a-Park Lake and three smaller ponds, besides associated reedbeds, scrub, woodland and grassland. It was designated as a SSSI in 1995 because it supports a number of wintering birds, including a large flock of goosander. This site is "one of the most northerly inland breeding populations of reed warbler in Britain." Hay-a-Park was once part of a royal park, an early landowner being Edward II.
Quarry Moor is a Site of Special Scientific Interest, or SSSI, at the south edge of Ripon, North Yorkshire, England, and adjacent to the A61 road. It contains an outcrop of Magnesian Limestone, exposed by former quarrying. 255 million years ago this limestone was the peripheral sediment of a tropical sea. The land was donated in 1945 to the people of Ripon by the town's mayor, Alderman Thomas Fowler Spence, a varnish manufacturer. The land was notified as an SSSI in 1986 because its calcareous grassland supported a large diversity of plant species. The site features a Schedule 8 protected plant, thistle broomrape. The land is protected as a nature reserve, and it is also managed as a recreational area. Therefore, its calcareous grass area is fenced off for protection and study, but it also contains a car park, information signs, a children's play area, accessible paths, benches, and dog waste bins.
Orobanche reticulata is a species of broomrape known by the common name thistle broomrape. It is a parasitic plant whose host is normally the creeping thistle. It is native to the lowlands of Western Europe and Central Asia, but in the United Kingdom it is a rare and protected plant, growing only in Yorkshire, on grassland sites such as Quarry Moor.
Farnham Mires is a Site of Special Scientific Interest, or SSSI, to the east of the village of Farnham, North Yorkshire, England. It consists of a spring-fed marshy fen or mire with reeds and sedge, and drier calcareous grassland containing a diverse range of flora. It has a history of poaching and fox hunting, but since the late 19th century, the attention of botanists has been drawn to its large variety of flowering plants. It has received some consideration on this account since 1944, and from 1954 it was designated SSSI status. This site has no facilities, and is not open to the public.
Cow Myers is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) located in the Nidderdale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), near Ripon, North Yorkshire, England. The site was designated in 1984 for its fen and alder carr habitat, which supports a diversity of wetland plant life. Of particular interest are the bird's eye primrose which is scarce in Yorkshire, and early marsh orchid. There is no public access to this site, no vehicular access, and no public facilities.
Bishop Monkton Ings is a Site of Special Scientific Interest, or SSSI, situated east of Bishop Monkton village in North Yorkshire, England. It consists mostly of marshy, calcareous grassland, with some broadleaved woodland, and some fen alongside the two watercourses which run through the site. This varied wetland forms a habitat for a variety of plants, including the semi-parasitic marsh lousewort (Pedicularis palustris).
Mar Field Fen is a Site of Special Scientific Interest, or SSSI, north of Masham, North Yorkshire, England, in a rural area known as Marfield. It is situated on land containing woodland carr, fen, spring-fed marshy grassland and drier calcareous grassland, between the River Ure to the east and Marfield Wetland nature reserve to the west. As "one of the best examples of fen habitat in the Vale of York," it is a protected habitat for a variety of plants, including the common butterwort, a carnivorous plant. There is no public access to this site.
Hack Fall Wood, otherwise known as Hackfall, is a Site of Special Scientific Interest, or SSSI, of 44.8687 hectares, lying north-east of the village of Grewelthorpe, North Yorkshire, England. During the 18th century it was landscaped in the picturesque style by landowner William Aislabie, who created views by engineering streams and pools, planting trees and building follies. Turner and Gilpin painted it, and pictures of it featured on Catherine the Great's 1773 Wedgwood dinner service. Some 19th century writers called it "one of the most beautiful woods in the country."
Ripon Parks is a Site of Special Scientific Interest, or SSSI, situated north of Ripon, to the west of the River Ure and to the east of the village of North Stainley, in North Yorkshire, England. It was once part of the land held since the Middle Ages as a deer park by the archbishops of York and the canons of Ripon. The site was designated as an SSSI in 1983, because its varied habitats are valued for their breeding birds, amphibians and varied flora. The woods here are "of note" for the parasitic flowers of common toothwort and yellow star-of-Bethlehem. A small part of the site is accessible via public footpaths; there are no public facilities or dedicated car parks. The site incorporates the High Batts Nature Reserve, which is privately run for training, recording and educational purposes, and accessible to members only, except for its annual open day. Ripon Parks is now owned by the Ministry of Defence, and parts of the site are used as military training areas.
Kirk Deighton SSSI is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Alton's Field, Kirk Deighton, North Yorkshire, England. This site has been recognised as having one of the largest known breeding populations of great crested newts in the United Kingdom. It is a Special Area of Conservation, and is listed for protection under a number of directives. This ordinary-looking grassland field, with a couple of ponds in it, is ideal habitat for the newts, which use the grassland for foraging, the ponds for breeding, and surrounding walls, hedges and woodpiles for hibernation. The site is not accessible to the public, and it is not permissible to survey the ponds without a licence.
Scoska Wood is an IUCN Category IV – habitat or species management area, a British national nature reserve (NNR), and a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Littondale, North Yorkshire, England. It is a managed ancient woodland, known for its ash trees, grasses and moths. It was designated as an SSSI in 1975, and was awarded its IUCN status in 1992.