Saturday 3rd July 2010  -  Lathkill Dale

 Leader:  John Somerville

 Ten members of the Liverpool Botanical Society met at 10.30am just outside Monyash on the lay-by at the west end of Lathkill Dale.  We intended to leave one car at Over Haddon where our walk was to finish and use this car to get the drivers back to the walk start to pick up their cars.  However the husband (Keith) of Aderyn Turner was going to meet his wife in Over Haddon and offered to transport all the other drivers back to the walk start.

 The weather was cloudy but dry as we entered Lathkill Dale by the stile.  We were walking down a grassy field used by cattle.  Plants such as Meadow Saxifrage were no longer showing but we found many others on a limestone ridge which ran parallel to the path on our right. These included:  Ivy-leaved Toadflax, Spring Sandwort, Hoary Plantain, Wall Rue, Polypody, Rough Hawkbit, Wall Lettuce, Salad Burnet, Marjoram, Brittle Bladder Fern, Welted Thistle and Musk Thistle.

Another stile lead us from the grassy field lead us into a gorge with limestone cliffs on both sides.  Plants here included:  Sweet Cicely, Common Spotted Orchid, Mossy Saxifrage, Ladies Smock, Jacob’s Ladder, Shining Cranesbill, Greater Knapweed, Upright Hedge-parsley, Common Valerian, Lesser Stitchwort, Water Avens, Orpine, Gtr Birdsfoot Trefoil and Harebell.

 The path in this gorge was quite tricky and it was nice to emerge from a fairly narrow gorge into a grand deep valley where on our left the rocky slope of the valley soared up to the fields at the top. The first plant  you notice growing on this slope is the tall Hoary Mullein.  We were surrounded with plants such as Rock Rose, Salad Burnet, Fairy Flax, Biting Stonecrop, Smooth Hawkbit, Thyme-leaved Sandwort, Birdsfoot Trefoil,  Kidney Vetch and Small Scabious. 

 As we descended the valley we met our first water where Cave Dale joins Lathkill Dale.  It was now 1pm and the sun had been out for the last two hours so we stopped here for lunch. Though the stream was virtually dry there was a little water and we studied the plants from the footbridge which spans the stream and found Fool’s Watercress, Brooklime and Water Speedwell.  Moving on we came to an area where the open slope on our left came to an end and here we found lots of Hoary Plantain and Hairy Rock-cress. 

 Across a stile and we were now walking along a path with steep wooded slopes and the stream gurgling down the middle. Plants found along the path included, Large Bittercress, Hemp Agrimony, Nettle-leaved Bellflower, Opposite-leaved Golden-saxifrage, Greater Knapweed, Spearmint, Pignut, Greater Burnet-saxifrage, Small Balsam, Crow Garlic and Wood Meadow Grass,

 This section of Lathkill Dale was home to several lead mines of which the most important was Mandale Mine and we spent a quick ten minutes studying the ruins and reading the information board.

 Finally we came to a steep road which led up to Over Haddon village and here we met Keith who drove all the car drivers back to the walk start at Monyash.