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Deep Dale Nature Reserve

Location: Sheldon, Peak District, Derbyshire
OS: SK 165 698
What Three Word location:///announced.hangs.paradise

Habitat: Limestone Grassland

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The Reserve

Deep Dale is one of those special places where, if you visit the right part at the right time of year, you will see swathes of colour spreading over the hillsides.

Sitting within the Peak District National Park, this grassland reserve has a rich cultural history including lead mining and the remains of a Romano-British settlement on a steep-sided hill called Fin Cop.

Habitat

The reserve is an area of grassland between 150-325m above sea level.

It lies within the Peak District National Park where the underlying rock is mainly carboniferous limestone. Most of the grassland is on thin soils over this rock, and so is very calcium-rich.

At the top of the slopes the soil becomes more acidic, while at the foot the soil is deeper and more fertile. Each zone has its own flora.

Species to look out for

  • Cowslip Primula veris – April – May
  • Early-purple Orchid Orchis mascula  –  April – May
  • Mountain pansy Viola lutea  – May – July
  • Grass-of-Parnassus Parnassia palustris July – October

Visit

Map of where Deep Dale Nature Reserve is located

Directions

From Bakewell, take the A6 towards Buxton. Approximately 3.5 miles from Bakewell you reach the White Lodge pay and display car park on the left hand side of the road.

To get to the reserve from the car park, follow the footpath leading southwards. Approximately 200 meters from the car park you reach a stile, which is one of the entrances to the reserve.

 

 

Video and Images

Early Purple Orchids at Deep Dale

Early Purple Orchids at Deep Dale

Early Purple Orchids and Cowslip at Deep Dale.

Early Purple Orchids and Cowslips at Deep Dale

A part of the map for the wildflower walk in Peak District.

Deep Dale Wildflower Walk Map

A downloadable pdf with map and guide of a circular 4 mile walk in Peak District National park , starting from White Lodge Carpark

Download
A meadow of daisies and orchids with a leafy woodlands in the background

24 Plantlife

Nature Reserves

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