Flowers of Upper Swaledale

2021 has been a wonderful year for bluebells. There are blanket of them in some of the old meadow fields, under trees and by rivers & streams. Find them near Thwaite, on Kisdon opposite Angram, on the walk between Keld and Muker and at Ivelet Bridge. At Pry House Farm we have our own bluebell wood by the river, a tranquil place accessible from the farm and the perfect place to picnic and paddle.

Upper Swaledale is famous for its spectacular wild flower hay meadows. Buttercup, pignut, clover, eye-bright, yellow rattle, wood crane’s bill to combine to produce a paintbox of colour. The flowers and grasses dance in the breeze, giving off an intoxicating scent particularly in the late afternoon and early evening. Muker meadows are the most well known but they are everywhere in Swaledale. Boardered by dry stone walls and dotted with stone buildings (called cowhouses or cow’uses in Swaledale) they are visible from every road and every footpath the length of the dale.

High on the fells, the open moorland often barren and bleak, suddenly comes alive with hundreds & hundreds of tiny, wild pansies and violas. The path is hard and the incline steep but the reward is definitely worth it.