In May I booked on to a widlflower walk in Grassington with my friend Katie (you can read about it here), which was lead by Yorkshire Dales volunteers. I enjoyed it so much that when my mum mentioned another widlower walk taking place in Yockenthwaite, we booked straight on to it.
This one was being led by the National Trust, which also works in conjunction with the Flowers of the Dales Festival.
When the day finally came around (today!) we packed ourselves a little lunch each and headed off to meet the group at Yockenthwaite Bridge.
There was around ten of us on the walk, which was lead by Peter, the National Trust ranger for upper Wharfedale. Peter gave us loads of information on the National Trust’s work in the area and the history of this part of the Dales.
I didn’t actually know that thwaite is a Norse word and means clearing in the woods. There are quite a few trees in the area but not as many as there used to be, so the team is periodically planting more.
Our walk started at Yockenthwaite farm, and we were taken on a circular route through fields, meadows and limestone grassland.
We saw lots of different types of wildflowers, and stopped at specific points on the route to look at different flowers a little more closely.
Peter runs this walk at the same time every year and said it can be completely different each time due to the UK’s variable weather system. This year a lot of August/September flowers were already out due to the amazing weather we’ve been having.
We identified wild orchids, melancholy thistles, scabious and wood cranes-bill just to make a few.
If you’d like to book on to any of the Flower Festival of the Dales events, you can find lots of information on the Yorkshire Dales blog.
To find out more about the area we walked in today, visit: https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/upper-wharfedale
