Thornhill Carrs Nature Reserve is a 30 hectare area of former farmland, rare within The Peak District National Park for its unmanaged Wildness. It’s sloping edges look out to the well-known hiking spot, Bamford Edge and it is currently home to a fantastic array of wild woodland, scrub and beautiful wildflower meadows.

Along the main track you can hear birds singing away in the trees; summer migrants like the garden warbler and the chiff chaff can be seen and heard around the woodland edges. Wildflower meadows carpet the reserve slopes at this time of year, with diverse species including bitter-vetch, betony, lousewort and devils-bit scabious, along with crested dogs-tail among the grass species. This allows for a host of different butterflies like the silver-washed fritillary, painted lady and the much rarer dingy skipper and small heath. Small mammals such as mice and voles rely on woodland thickets of vegetation along with grass tussocks to provide shelter when commuting and breeding.

Rewilding is when we leave nature to its own devices and habitat development flourishes all on its own. The results are remarkable and nature increases its abundance of plants and animals, sometimes even inviting rarer species to these varied, thriving habitats. In the short term the site will need some intervention which includes rotational grazing to mimic the lost natural processes that would have occurred through large grazing herd moving through the landscape. Minimal scrub removal on the high grassland which will allow for wildflower and invertebrate diversity.

The long-term vision is to continue to see the site become a home to a range of species and become self-sustaining, requiring less human intervention. The site is now surrounded by a patchwork of wilder areas as more landowners are coming together to form healthy green corridors across Derbyshire.

Earlier this year we had some beautiful new wooden carved sculptures installed on the site, including a pine marten, osprey, red squirrel and wild boar. All of which we would love to see back in Derbyshire. The more rewilding projects that happen across the UK, the more chance of these species making their return. We are excited to see what could happen to Thornhill Carrs in the years to come!

Want to visit Thornhill Carrs? Head over to our reserve page here to find out more about the reserve and directions to the site.