Muker Meadow, Muker
"One of the most remarkable places I’ve ever visited. If ever there was a Coronation Meadow it’s this."
- Dr Trevor Dines, Plantlife
The four meadows found here are amongst the best upland hay meadows in the Yorkshire Dales. They support a very wide range of wildflowers and grasses including wood crane’s-bill, melancholy thistle, pignut, lady’s mantles, rough hawkbit, cat’s-ear and sweet vernal grass. The two owners are committed to ensuring they continue to be traditionally managed to maintain their fantastic floral diversity. A flagged footpath runs through the meadows from the nearby village of Muker, enabling summer visitors to experience an astounding range of colours and textures and a quintessential aspect of the Dales. The Coronation Meadows are four of 12 meadows that make up Muker Meadows SSSI in Swaledale.
Muker Meadow in the news The Yorkshire Times
Header image (above) © David Hill
Recipient Meadows
Species to spot
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Yellow rattle
Best time to see: May - Sept.
A semi-parasitic flower, that feeds off nutrients in nearby grass roots. In doing so it helps restrict the vigorous grasses, allowing more delicate wildflowers to emerge. Its 'rattle' is from tiny seeds in their pods.
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Pignut
Best time to see: April - June
With delicate, branched stems, and white umbels of small flowers. Shakespeare refers to pignut in The Tempest when Caliban says 'I pr’ythee, let me bring thee where crabs grow; And I with my long nails will dig thee pig-nuts; Show thee a jay’s nest, ....'
Image by Cath Shellswell, Plantlife
Your pictures
The Muker Coronation Meadows plaque is unveiled
- YDMT Trustee Andrew Campbell (left) and landowner William Raw.
Owned by
William and Carole Raw, and Kathleen Raw and David Hill