For the love of hay meadows at Grouse Inn

Throughout the summer the rangers, with the help of volunteers, will be counting the number of grasses and flowers and entering the information into a database.

To make a hay meadow, grazing is stopped in the spring so grass and flowers can grow, which also allows birds to nest and bees to thrive.

Later in the year, the meadow is re-mown to provide winter animal food.
This is what is happening at Grouse Inn fields where the National Trust have had management of the meadow since 2003.

Ranger, Mark Attwood said: “This is a classic English upland hay meadow, people’s eyes light up when they come in here to see all the different flowers and insects, it’s fantastic,”

There are now 77 different plant species at the meadow, insects, bees, butterflies and even badgers rooting in the fields for ‘pignut’ roots.

A kestrel box at the edge of the fields saw six chicks successfully reared last year.

For information visit nationaltrust.org.uk/longshaw