Globe Flower Wood Nature Reserve

This very small, special reserve was first established to conserve a small area of ‘marsh meadow’.

Particularly pretty mid-summer, globeflowers grow on the wet pasture giving the reserve its name. An uncommon species globeflower is also known as kingcup, sensitive in particular to agricultural improvements including drainage. This means it is important to protect it, for this reason there are no entrances to the reserve. However you are welcome to take a look over the moss and lichen covered stone walls; you can see the whole reserve from this point. If you are really keen to enter then we do hold practical workdays on the site, so keep an eye out for these and get involved in the conservation of this special reserve.

In addition to the globeflower, wood cranesbill and melancholy thistle are amongst the spectacular flora at this reserve. The woodland is composed of birch, sycamore and willow.

Whilst drainage is important to the success of globeflowers the Trust has no control over the water levels. Fortunately the reserve is periodically flushed with lime-rich water from the surrounding Great Scar Limestone. This forms a damp, rich soil of the brown earth type. Therefore whilst the main aim on the reserve is to conserve the globeflower, this is done mostly by preserving the walls to exclude grazing. The Trust also carries out occasional clearance of willow which has been spreading into the centre of the reserve.

Directions

Globe Flower Wood is approximately Two-and-a-half miles from Malham and three-and-a-half miles from the market town of settle in North Yorkshire.

If approaching from Settle, take the B6479 to Langcliffe in Ribblesdale, turning right onto the Arncliffe road. The reserve is at the second junction about four miles beyond langcliffe and about a mile west of Malham Tarn. Temporary Parking is allowed by the adjacent cattle gris as long as care is taken not to inconvenience movement of stock.