About the reserve

Hartington Meadows is bursting with the colour of wild flowers through the summer.

The grassland is managed as part of a working farm, and is cut for hay in mid-July - this encourages meadow flowers such as hay rattle and meadow vetchling. Different flowers grow on the rock outcrops - among them are clustered bellflower and dropwort.

The rough grassland also provides breeding sites for skylark and ground-nesting birds. Various orchids and other limestone flowers thrive in and around the disused limestone quarry, while its faces provide breeding sites for cliff-nesting birds such as kestrel and jackdaw.