Additional information
Terrain
- Firm in dale, but potentially muddy farm track at start; several stiles
Landscape
- Flower-rich limestone dale and grassland
Dog friendliness
- On lead around livestock
Parking
- Wide grass verge at top of lane
Toilets en route
- None on route
About the walk
The Northern Brown Argus is not, at first sight, the most showy of butterflies. It’s small and dark brown in colour, with variable orange or white spots on the edges of its wings, although in flight it seems almost silvery. You can find it on sheltered limestone slopes where it feasts on the common... rock rose, a low, evergreen trailing plant that flowers yellow between May and July. The Northern Brown Argus is also dwindling in number, with the scattered colonies across the north of England becoming fewer and fewer. One place where it’s still doing well, however, is this unspoilt little valley near Tideswell, rich in limestone-loving herbs and wild flowers like the common rock rose. Hay Dale is one of five separate limestone valleys that together make up the Derbyshire Dales National Nature Reserve (the others are Monk’s, Cressbrook, Lathkill and Long dales). These largely untouched limestone dales are usually narrow and in places wooded, their thin grassy slopes often punctured by scree or bare rock. Hay Dale is perhaps the most delicate and certainly the smallest, easily accessible but bursting with wild flowers that carpet the dale floor and gentle eastern slopes in spring and early summer. And this profusion of flowers of course means a healthy insect and butterfly population. It’s a great place to begin identifying typical limestone plants like thyme and salad burnet, plus cowslips and early purple orchids, as well as rarities such as spring cinquefoil. Nature reserves The walk begins by skirting the top of Hay Dale along field paths, offering tantalising glimpses into the shallow green valley below. Before long it drops down into the National Nature Reserve, following an old mining track along the dale bottom. The final stage is back up a quiet country lane, and even there look out for nature. The grassy bank on the left has been designated a ‘Road Verge Reserve’ – simply a roadside location that local people and landowners have identified as being rich in wild flowers. The Peak District National Park is keen to help species like ox-eye daisy, field scabious and meadow cranesbill, all of which have declined over the last 50 years, by encouraging mowing at appropriate times (so that the flowers are able to drop their seeds) and organising volunteers to control invasive scrub and bracken. Limestone grassland that’s ‘unimproved’ (meaning not sprayed with chemicals) is a precious and threatened habitat, which is why even Hay Dale’s 20 acres (8ha), plus its roadside verges, are so important for wildlife – especially if you are a modest little brown butterfly.
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