Action Plan: Upland Hay Meadow

Traditionally managed upland hay meadows are found in upland valleys in the north of England. The main concentrations of upland hay meadows are in the northern Pennines of North Yorkshire, Durham and east Cumbria but there are scattered locations in west Cumbria, Lancashire and Northumberland. Recent estimates indicate that there are less than 1000 hectares in northern England.

Upland hay meadows are an important breeding habitat for yellow wagtail and lapwing, and feeding habitat for twite, a scarce finch of upland areas, as well as linnet, curlew and golden plover. Black grouse use hay meadows for feeding where they occur in proximity to upland heath and rushy pasture. The corncrake was a common breeding species in hay meadows in Northumberland until the 1930s, and bred sporadically until the 1950s. One or two birds are recorded in Northumberland in most years.

Upland hay meadows form an important habitat for a number of plants in Northumberland, including fragrant, greater butterfly-, frog and small-white orchids, melancholy thistle, globeflower, the lady’s-mantles Alchemilla vulgaris, A. glabra and A. xanthochlora and the nationally scarce northern hawk’s beard.