Yorkshire Dales Hay Meadows — The Most Biodiverse Grassland in England

In late May and June, the unimproved hay meadows of the Yorkshire Dales are among the most botanically rich habitats in England — remnants of a landscape that once covered a significant proportion of the British countryside and has since been reduced to a tiny fraction of its former extent.

A traditional hay meadow managed on pre-modern principles — no artificial fertiliser, cut once in July or August, grazed lightly in spring and autumn — can support over 100 species of flowering plant in a single hectare. The best meadows in the Dales do exactly this. The combination of colour and variety they produce in late May and June is something that most people have never seen, because most grassland in Britain has been improved out of existence.

What you see in a traditional meadow

The plant that tells you a hay meadow is genuinely old and unimproved is yellow rattle (Rhinanthus minor) — a semi-parasitic annual that attaches its roots to the roots of grasses and weakens them, suppressing the aggressive grass growth that would otherwise crowd out the flowering herbs. Where yellow rattle is abundant, the meadow is typically rich; where it is absent, the grasses usually dominate.

In a good Dales meadow in late May: yellow rattle (aptly named — the dried seed capsules rattle in the wind), meadow buttercup, cranesbill, pignut (the white-flowered umbellifer whose roots are edible), wood crane's-bill (the large, purple-flowered species), melancholy thistle (the spineless thistle of the upland meadows), devil's bit scabious, marsh marigold in the damper sections, and dozens more.

Above the meadow, in the hedgerows and road verges: common spotted orchid, northern marsh orchid, bird's eye primrose in the limestone grassland. The orchid display in the limestone pastures above Swaledale and around Muker in late May is extraordinary.

Where to see them

Muker, Swaledale — the meadows around Muker are the most celebrated hay meadows in the Dales, managed by generations of the same farming families and consistently rich. The footpath between Muker and Keld passes through the best meadow country.

Arkengarthdale — the side valley north of Swaledale has traditional meadow farming on most of its valley floor.

Upper Wharfedale — the meadows between Kettlewell and Buckden in upper Wharfedale are good, particularly in the damp, rush-dominated lower sections.

The threat

Traditional hay meadows in the UK have declined by approximately 97% since the 1930s. The cause is agricultural improvement: the application of artificial fertiliser causes grasses to outcompete the less vigorous flowering herbs, and cutting before the seed is set (to produce silage rather than hay) prevents the plant community from reproducing. The result is a species-poor, grass-dominated sward that is agronomically productive but ecologically dead.

The meadows that remain in the Dales survive because the terrain — steep valley sides, remote locations, farms too small to mechanise fully — made improvement uneconomic. They are now protected by agri-environment schemes that pay farmers to maintain traditional management. They are, in a real sense, living fossils of the pre-industrial landscape.

The Dales meadow landscape is at its best in late May and June. Contact us to discuss a bespoke Dales tour in the meadow season.