Limestone pavement

After a breakfast fit for royalty, we set off for a day of exploration in glorious September sunshine. The morning was spent at Hutton Roof Crags, while in the afternoon we visited Gait Barrows. Both are National Nature reserves on account of their limestone pavement, which is a very rare habitat and supports a wide variety of specialist ferns and flowering plants, many of which we saw.

Among the highlights for me were the sheer quantity of rigid buckler fern at Hutton Roof Crags, finding a dark red helleborine in flower (lots in seed) and being shown the thriving colony of lady's slipper orchids (sadly not flowering) by the warden of Gait Barrows. 

We ended the day at Silverdale, the sweeping expanses of Morecombe Bay contrasting with the complicated and intimate terrain of the limestone pavements. There were a number of waders around, but the most spectacular feature was the vast number of swallows feeding over the creeks and saltings.

It was very hard to choose a photograph to represent such an amazing day, but this view from Hutton Roof Crags towards Newbigging Crags give you a flavour of the type of terrain we were negotiating. And I even got sunburnt!