Lincoln Conservation Group:  

NORTH YORK MOORS NATIONAL PARK WEEKEND, 16-18 November 2007

A great weekend enjoyed by 16 of us, though we were pretty tired by the time we finished on Sunday.

The recently refurbished Whitby Youth Hostel is in the old Abbey House which is – well, right beside the abbey. A great location with views over the river and harbour and right by the steps down to the town and a choice of local hostelries (which enjoyed some good custom on Friday and Saturday nights).

Excellent breakfasts with locally sourced food included in the overnight price and we were lucky to have the self-catering kitchen to ourselves for our dinner on Saturday (with thanks to Nick for planning the menu for the evening).

We were working about half an hour away from the hostel, in the Forestry Commission’s Dalby Forest (known as ‘the great Yorkshire forest’). Bill Ashton-Wickett, our NYM Park Authority leader when we worked in Yorkshire last November, collected us from the Youth Hostel and took us to the site. The sloping site, a clearing on Pexton Bank, has been home to the Duke of Burgundy butterfly which likes scrubby grassland. Unfortunately the grass has been overtaken by brambles, clumps of hazel, bracken, etc, putting the habitat at threat. There are small colonies of the butterfly nearby but Butterfly Conservation wanted to remove all the scrub to encourage the butterfly to use the site again. Dave Wainright from Butterfly Conservation gave us an interesting introductory talk to the site and why it was important for the Duke of Burgundy.

Saturday was a lovely day – a still, clear, sunny autumn day. A variety of trees in the surrounding forest resulted in a tapestry of evergreen and autumn colours. We looked forward to the sound of birds singing, the crackling of the bonfire and instead …. Dalby was part of the route of the Roger Albert Clark motor rally, organised by the De Lacy Motor Club! So, much of the day was accompanied by the sound of screaming engines and the valley was hazy with dust rather than mist. But we did have a roaring bonfire, and we cleared a lot on the first day, in spite of tripping over brambles and having to drag cut brash up the steeply sloping ground.

After a rainy night, Sunday was very different – sleet on the way to the task, then drizzle for much of the morning, finally clearing and brightening up a bit in the afternoon. But the bonfire cheered us up and we more or less finished clearing most of the scrub on the bank before finally stopping around 3pm and heading for home, damp, tired but happy.

Thanks to Richard for organising it all, to Bill for leading us and the NYM Park authority for contributing to the cost of our excellent accommodation. We plan to be back there again next year!