Friends of the Settle–Carlisle Line
Wild Ingleborough INGLEBOROUGH NATURE RESERVE EXPANSION AND A FOCUS ON FUNGI By Ellie Parker, Wild Ingleborough Community Engagement Officer
In September 2025, an additional 179 hectares of land were officially added to the Ingleborough National Nature Reserve as part of the launch of the King’s Series of National Nature Reserves, established to celebrate His Majesty the King’s Coronation in 2023. valley. In autumn, a walk alongside The expansion brings the total safethe scrubby limestone pavements of guarded area to 1186 hectares, equivalent Southerscales and Scar Close is likely to 2.2 billion Yorkshire Tea bags, making to reward with sightings of large flocks it one of the largest protected landscapes of birds such as starlings and fieldfares, in northern England. It brings together who come to feast on the hawthorn decades of work by Natural England and blackthorn berries. Or you may see and Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, to tackle a ‘charm’ of goldfinches, the climate crisis, restore making the most of the degraded habitats, and A mosaic of nature in seedheads of spear thistles. create a resilient landscape action, from moorland Ingleborough is also for people and nature. The fell top to meadow. home to an amazing extension recognises the array of grassland fungi national importance of – perhaps less well known than their these sites for their unique habitats, and woodland cousins, but well worth taking the species they support, and will allow the time to seek out on an autumn walk. for improved public access to nature with In particular, waxcaps (pictured) shine visitors benefiting from closer access like jewels in the shorter grasses, and from Ribblehead railway station on the come in a startling variety of colours – famous Settle–Carlisle line. from crimson and golden species, to Ingleborough National Nature Reserve pink ‘ballerinas’ and blue-green ‘parrots’. is one of the best places to see a mosaic Alongside various club, spindle and of nature in action, from moorland coral fungi (named for their distinctive fell top, blanket bog and heath to rush shapes), Ingleborough contains pasture, fen and woodland and then to species rich meadows and rivers, which nationally important sites for this group can all be found in a single section of of unusual fungi. 12
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