Breaking the journey north

It’s a short stop on a long journey north, made possible because the quarry at Bishop Middleham is just a four-minute drive from the A1. Stopping the car in a small lay-by, a half-hidden sign directs us through a gap in the hedge and into a belt of woodland. After 100 metres or so of walking through the damp, heavily shaded woodland cover I wonder if we have stopped in the wrong place. The map I had looked at before setting off suggested that the quarry butted right up against the road. However, with the path suddenly turning and dropping downhill I am reassured, guessing that we are on the right track. Sure enough we soon emerge into sunlight, entering an industrial amphitheatre that is carpeted with a short rich sward and surrounded by rising walls of Magnesian limestone. The stone was quarried from here up until the 1930s and was used for buildings, agriculture and for various industrial processes. It is this history of quarrying that has shaped the community of plants and animals that thrive on these thin, magnesium-rich soils.

Large areas of the quarry floor are carpeted with the golden yellow blooms of Common Rock-rose and other lime-loving herbs, including eight different species of orchid. Among the Pyramidal, Bee and Common Spotted Orchids are the tall flowering spikes of Dark-red Helleborine (an orchid by another name). This colony of helleborines is thought to number some 2,000 or so flowering spikes, making this the largest colony in Britain, perhaps holding more plants than all the other populations combined. The plants themselves are surprisingly tall and erect in habit, with thick almost succulent leaves arranged in two rows up the stem. We are a little early in the season and the attractive dusky-red blooms are not yet open, the supporting flowering spikes hanging bent like the curve of a shepherd’s crook.

It is not actually the flowers that we have come to see, but a small butterfly – the Northern Brown Argus. This species occurs from the Peak District northwards and is on the wing from June-August. The population at Bishop Middleham belongs to a distinct race, known as salmacis and first described in 1828. It is more commonly referred to as the Castle Eden argus, a reference to this part of Co. Durham where it is found. Although the weather is not ideal, with thick shower clouds rolling through and blocking the sun, our fortunate timing coincides with a sunny spell and we are rewarded by really excellent views of the butterfly and some photographs to take away. If we’re passing this way again then another visit may well prove to be in order.