South House Pavement Nature Reserve

South House Pavement
Wheateater

(C) Gary Cox

Rowan credit Peter Wolstenholme
Harebell credit Tord Sollie

South House Pavement Nature Reserve

An adventure to this fantastic strip of limestone pavement promises to reward you with glimpses of treasure amongst the clints and grykes.

Location

Off B6479, Horton to Selside Road
Nearest town: Horton-in-Ribblesdale (2m/3.2km)
North Yorkshire
BD25 0HX

OS Map Reference

Site entrance: SD 77569 74414. (what.3.words below in link)
Roadside parking: SD 78791 74642. (what.3.words///exacted.premature.fetches)

View on What3Words

A static map of South House Pavement Nature Reserve

Know before you go

Size
5 hectares
image/svg+xmlz

Entry fee

Free
image/svg+xmlP

Parking information

Informal roadside parking on Horton Road
image/svg+xml

Walking trails

Public footpaths and open access land. There is a small gate into the eastern and western wall.

image/svg+xml

Access

Access is by permissive path from South House. Hazards include some unstable clints and grykes, and wet pavement can be slippery when wet or icy. No access for wheelchair users.

Route to reserve entrance involves a 20 minute walk up a steady slope of mixed road, track and open field.

Dogs

image/svg+xmlOn a lead

In wet and icy conditions the grykes can be slippery for both humans and dogs, please exercise caution and keep your dog on a short lead. 

When to visit

Opening times

Open at all times. We recommend a 1 hour trip for this reserve, an extended outing might include a visit to our other Ingleborough reserves such as Brae Pasture which is just one mile away.

Best time to visit

March to June

About the reserve

Spectacular (but slippery when wet!) South House Pavement is an exciting destination for intrepid, sure-footed plant lovers who are happiest when searching for hidden wonders. The clints (blocks) and grykes (gaps) harbour highly diverse plant life, including meadowsweet and broad buckler fern. Pink hairy stonecrop grows near pools of water on the bare rock in summer, when you can also see rigid buckler fern. Rowan and harebells provide autumn colour, and hart’s-tongue fern stands out in winter.

Contact us

Yorkshire Wildlife Trust
Contact number: 01904 659570
Contact email: info@ywt.org.uk
Purple mountain pansies growing in a grassy field..

Mountain Pansies - (C) John Potter

New heights for nature

Ingleborough and its iconic foothills are the last stronghold for rare and threatened species that are found nowhere else in the world.

We must protect, restore and reconnect this iconic landscape today before these species are lost forever.

Discover more today

About

Surrounded by dry stone walls, typical in the Yorkshire Dales National Park, South House Pavement Nature Reserve is a fantastic example of a limestone pavement. A great site for the sure-footed, the mosaic of narrow clints (blocks) and grykes (fissures) provides a wide range of climatic and soil conditions, leading to high botanical diversity. It does mean however that it can be rather difficult to venture across, particularly in wet weather when it is best avoided.

The pavement fissures support plants including meadowsweet, broad buckler fern and hart’s tongue fern. The depressions in the limestone pavement allows the development of thicker, damp soil which support heather, while pink hairy stonecrop grows near pools of water on the bare rock.

Spring is the best time to see blue moor grass in flower, which is a nationally scarce species. It is when wheatear and meadow pipit also start to sing on site.

In summer species of interest within the pavement include ridgig buckler fern and hairy stonecrop. In autumn rowan and harebells provide some late season colour. In winter harts-tongue fern stands out as many of the other species have died back for the winter.

 

Seasonal highlights

  • Spring: Birds - Meadow pipit; Wheatear; Willow Warbler; Plants - Blue moor-grass; Water avens, Invertebrates - Orange tips
  • Summer: Plants - Rigid buckler fern; Hairy stonecrop
  • Autumn: Plants - Rowan; Harebell
  • Winter: Plants - Hart's-tongue

History

Features of historical interest include the eastern stone wall of the reserve which is likely to be of medieval in origin, and formed part of the Furness Abbey Selseth (Selside) vaccary (cattle estate). A (possibly medieval) sunken track was cut through the central part of South House Pavement to give access from the enclosures to the then open Fell Close. This is now a footpath through the site.

South House Pavement was once grazed, the rocky areas cleared in previous centuries. However the grykes in the pavement make it a dangerous site for livestock and there is no water supply. Management is now focussed on maintaining the dry stone walls and occasionally removing sycamore seedlings and rosebay willowherb which would otherwise grow and shade out the rich ground flora. The land here is part of the Ingleborough National Nature Reserve.

Directions

Public transport
Train (Settle-Carlisle line) station and occasional buses at Horton-in-Ribblesdale 2.5 miles away.

By car
Take the B6479 Horton to Selside Road and turn off for South House. The nature reserve lies beyond South House on the lower slopes of Simon Fell, east of Ingleborough Hill. There is limited roadside parking. Enter the nature reserve by a small gate in the wall.

A beautiful pink sunrise over Ashes Pasture.

Ashes Pasture - (C) John Potter

Ingleborough needs you!

Donating to Wild Ingleborough is a chance to contribute to a flagship landscape scale restoration programme in one of England’s most iconic landscapes.
£
Type of donation