August heather displays in Lakeland

This vast display of  reliable flowers must be one of the greatest free sights on earth. Anyone making a day-trip to the Lake District should drive along the A66 and stop near Threlkeld. The ridged upper slopes are awash with purple heather. If you are lucky enough to capture a sunny day the prospect is breathtaking.

75% of of the world's remaining heather moorland is found in Britain - but this area declined alarmingly over the latter part of the last century. The Moorland Association was set up in 1986 to coordinate the efforts of moorland owners and managers to halt this loss, particularly in England and Wales.

It is mainly because of grouse shooting that this habitat has been maintained. The red grouse is a moorland bird species unique to Britain, and where moorlands have been managed to preserve it, other rare species also thrive. Large areas of heather were lost to the post-war intensification of farming and forestry, except where grouse shooting was important.

Heather grows vigorously on peat and acid soils. Three main varieties are found on British moors.

Ling (Calluna vulgaris) a bushy evergreen shrub with many, often tortuous stems, is by far the most common. It can grow to 60cms, twice the height of the other two. Cross-leaved heath (Erica tetralix) and bell heather (Erica Onerea) - Ling is the last of the three to flower. In late August it covers the hilltops with a carpet of purple.

Origins of Heather Moor

After the end of the last ice age, some 15,000 years ago woodland spread over most of the landscape of England and Wales. On the hilltops it remained more open with perhaps heathy grasslands on the highest ground.

During the Stone Age people began to occupy the uplands. To begin with they depended on a hunter gatherer lifestyle and learned to manipulate the forest by burning clearings. This brought a greater abundance of animals, which in turn could be more easily caught in the open areas.

By 5000BC, Britain was totally populated. People now depended on more organised farming for their food which led to wider woodland clearance to provide grazing

for animals and production of crops. But the soils on the hills were thin and their goodness was soon depleted. With the tree cover removed, soil erosion also set in, much as happens today with the removal of rain forests. Once the quality of the soil had deteriorated, productive farming on the higher ground failed. With sour soils blanket peat and heath began to spread.

The hills would still have been grazed, especially after the Norman conquest when monasteries had extensive sheep flocks. The stock grazing along with the effects of rabbits, which were introduced by the Romans, suppressed the growth of any taller vegetation.

Up until the last 200 years the moorland landscape was probably more varied than we see today with a greater mixture of heather bogs and perhaps grassland.

With thanks to The Moorland Association for this text. For much more interesting information and images visit

http://www.moorlandassociation.org/index.asp