Thornhill Carrs Nature Reserve is a 30 hectare area of former farmland, rare within The Peak District National Park for its unmanaged Wildness. It’s sloping edges look out to the well-known hiking spot, Bamford Edge and it is currently home to a fantastic array of wild woodland, scrub and beautiful wildflower meadows.
Along the main track you can hear birds singing away in the trees; summer migrants like the garden warbler and the chiff chaff can be seen and heard around the woodland edges. Wildflower meadows carpet the reserve slopes at this time of year, with diverse species including bitter-vetch, betony, lousewort and devils-bit scabious, along with crested dogs-tail among the grass species. This allows for a host of different butterflies like the silver-washed fritillary, painted lady and the much rarer dingy skipper and small heath. Small mammals such as mice and voles rely on woodland thickets of vegetation along with grass tussocks to provide shelter when commuting and breeding.