A spectacular view of Barden Moor on the Bolton Abbey estate

The moors can be seen as unforgiving, barren and wild places, but maybe that’s their appeal. They’re unspoilt.

After all, it’s reported that 30 million people are captivated enough every year to visit grouse moorland in the Yorkshire Dales, Peak District and North Yorkshire Moors.

Just as well really, considering England and Wales has 860,000 acres of upland heather moorland, while England alone accounts for a jaw dropping 75% of the moorland worldwide.

Tiny but in a big way

And at Bolton Abbey you can find a tiny slice of moorland waiting for you to explore right now.

Ok, tiny’s probably downplaying it slightly because we’re talking about an area of 13,500 acres with 35 km of tracks and paths. That’s almost the same size as one of Europe’s smallest countries San Marino.

Wherever you find them in the world, moorlands are worth fighting for because each one has its own ecosystem that helps offset the damaging effects of climate change. Despite their huge importance, they don’t get anything like the same kind of media coverage as rainforests, even though they’re actually rarer.

But, looking at it from one angle, perhaps that’s understandable.

This footpath leads you up to one of the highest points on the estate, Simon’s Seat.

Rainforests of the UK

Moorlands tend to have the kind of soil that’s so poor few trees can survive whereas rainforests are lush and evergreen, supporting the kind of biodiversity that’s off the scale.

They look as though they’re from different worlds, but together they share the one thing we should all be eternally grateful for. And that’s the capacity to store carbon.

Certainly, on these shores, where moorlands have the perfect conditions for blanket bogs to flourish, these areas are known as the rainforests of the UK.

But that’s nothing to do with the growing of trees, but much more to do with the formation of peat which helps to lock an estimated 3.2 billion tonnes of carbon in the UK, according to the UK Centre of Ecology and Hydrology. That’s 3.2 billion tonnes of carbon that would otherwise have been released into the atmosphere, increasing carbon dioxide levels.

A Waste of Space?

Precious though these areas are now, at one time they were treated very differently, as if they were a waste of space. Going back to the time after World War Two, government-paid subsidies encouraged some moorland owners to drain their land for the grazing of livestock. From a commercial point of view, it seemed like a good idea but with hindsight this ultimately proved to be ill-conceived and misguided.

That’s because draining moorland had a number of negative consequences on the environment. The soil would have become drier, making erosion and subsidence more of an issue and, by allowing water to drain away from the upland moor areas more quickly, the risk of flooding would have increased downstream too.

Just an example of what may have been lost due to moorland drainage

Restoring our peatlands

Today, our gamekeepers at Bolton Abbey take a holistic approach to restoring and preserving our peatland habitat for a unique and fantastic blend of flora and fauna.

Part of that process involves rewetting areas across Barden Fell and Barden Moor – two of six sites of special scientific interest incidentally. That’s achieved by re-planting peat forming species such as
Sphagnum Moss which can absorb 20 times its own weight in water and by blocking gullies that would have allowed more water to run off the moors.

Together with Yorkshire Water and the Yorkshire Peat Partnership, the benefits for the way we live and the environment can now be felt.

We have recently planted 100 hectares with Sphagnum Moss and other peat forming species that help retain more water in these areas. This not only protects peat, but also reduces the risk of wildfires and flooding.

Attracting a variety of endangered and vulnerable wading birds which breed on the moorland each spring has also been very successful on the estate.

But the one wading bird we love to shout about more than any other happens to be Europe’s largest and that’s the Curlew.

The UK Curlew population has fallen by half in the last 25 years, making it as endangered as the jaguar but our work to restore this natural habitat has given these birds more than a fighting chance of survival, with around 300 breeding pairs on the estate. That’s believed to be more than the whole of the UK south of Birmingham.

Sphagnum Moss has been replanted across a large area as part of the rewetting process at Bolton Abbey

The Curlew with its distinctive slightly curved beak in its natural habitat

Getting up close

And because that’s something we’re really proud of, we want to share our success with you.
Starting last year and led by our gamekeepers with all their years of experience and knowledge, our safaris give everyone the chance to see these beautiful but elusive birds and learn more what we’re doing to protect them.

Put simply, by managing these moors, it’s shown that we make birds like the Curlew and the Lapwing 3.5 times more likely to make this place a safe haven for them to raise their chicks.

Along with the rewetting and the planting of vegetation, bracken is also controlled because, if it’s left unchecked, it can destroy more ecologically valuable habitats and create a breeding ground for ticks.

Money Well Spent

All these steps are worth our annual investment of £675,000 a year into moorland management because we want everyone coming here to have the opportunity to enjoy it, but also respect it and that means educating our visitors who may not realise the dangers of lighting barbecues or fires in these areas, or letting dogs off leads where there are ground nesting birds.

Meanwhile, in the last two years, our head gamekeeper Tom Adamson has taken part in Let’s Learn Moor, a moorland education event that includes hands-on demonstrations, showing primary school children how the moors are managed and why they matter.

So, if you’re coming up onto our moors for the first time or the next time you see them, just take a moment to stop and really appreciate what you can see not just above the ground but especially around or under your feet because it’s nature at work protecting our very existence.

Take a look at what else we can see while at Bolton Abbey by clicking here

Rugged, wild and beautiful, our moorlands are here waiting for you.