Nature watching
The North Pennines has wonderful wonderful wildlife owing to the variety of interwoven habitats that are found here. These habitats include moorland, upland hay meadows, woodland rivers and reservoirs.
There are many great sites in the North Pennines from which to see our important flora and fauna. The North Pennines is home to 40% of the UK’s species rich upland hay meadows. Some of the beautiful wildflowers found in these meadows include wood cranes-bill, globeflower, marsh hawks-beard and melancholy thistle. Our Hay Time meadow walks are a great way to see them.
There are a number of woodland walks in the AONB such as Derwent Gorge and the National Trust's Allen Banks and Staward Gorge, which allow you to see many of their characteristic species of plants and wildlife.
Several of the North Pennines Bird Walks take you to places to see moorland bird species and habitats like blanket bog and heather moorland, which turns a glorious shade of purple in August. The Pennine Way National Trail in Teesdale and the Weardale Way both closely follow the courses of the River Tees and Wear. There are also wildlife hides at Derwent Reservoir and the RSPB Geltsdale Nature Reserve.