Bewick and Beanley Moors


Bewick and Beanley Moors is the name given to a Site of Special Scientific Interest in north Northumberland, in the north-east of England. The moors are asserted to be of national importance by Natural England for the extent, quality and diversity of upland types including heaths, fens, wet grassland, flushes, mires and blanket bogs, together creating an extensive mosaic habitat supporting an exceptional community of amphibians. The moors are important, too, for their relict juniper woodland and scrub.
Designated in 2010, Bewick and Beanley Moors incorporates within its boundaries two now denotified SSSIs, Hannah's Hill, Harehope and Quarryhouse Moor Ponds.

Location and natural features

Bewick and Beanley Moors, as defined for the purposes of the SSSI, are three distinct and non-contiguous moorland areas in north Northumberland, located to the north and north-west of Alnwick, and to the south-east of Wooler, extending to about north to south, and up to east to west. The moors are to the west of the A1, east of the A697 and south of the B6348 roads.
The southernmost section, south-east of Beanley, south of Eglingham and the B6346 road, and north of Bolton and Titlington, is an irregularly shaped area of moorland, some north to south, and east to west. It is composed of, from the west, Titlington Pike, a round hill rising from circa to above sea level; Titlington and Beanley Plantations and Beanley Moss, wetlands falling gently to the east from about to ; Beanley Moor, making up the majority of the area, wetlands falling very slowly from to before descending to about at Kimmer and Huntersheugh Crags, a semicircle escarpment of steeply descending land with rock outcrops; and Kimmer Lough, a ovaloid kettle hole - a deep pond formed in the void remaining after a submerged glacial calf block melted - at circa above sea level. Kimmer Crags, at the centre of the area, is north-east of Alnwick and south of Eglingham.
The middle and largest section, north of Eglingham and south-east of Chillingham and Hepburn, extends to some north to south, and east to west, and is composed in the south of Bewick Moor, in the north west, Hepburn Moor and in the north east, Quarryhouse Moor, which rise from about in the south-east at Harehope in a series of escarpments to a wetland plateau area starting at about with Cateran Hill, a local peak, at the centre. At the far north west, the site includes Ross Castle, a hill just east of Chillingham Castle. Cateran Hill - notable locally for the Cateran Hole - is about north of Eglingham.
The northernmost section, situated on the east-falling slopes of moors from east of Chillingham and south of the B6348 road, is again irregularly shaped, extending some north to south, and east to west. It is composed of parts of Chatton Moor in the north, Sandyford Moor in the centre and to the south-east, Rossbrough Moor and Wandylaw Bog; the site incorporates part of Wandylaw Wind Farm, and the Chatton transmitting station. The moors rise very slowly from about and at the eastern boundary, to a number of local maxima ranging from to.

Vegetation

Bewick and Beanley Moors sit on fell sandstone of the Border Group, falling from in the west to in the east, and are a nationally important example of a mosaic of habitats supporting a wide range of vegetation types associated with the transition from lowand to upland moors. The SSSI citation for the moors defines the principal vegetation and describes a number of specific landforms and transitional areas occurring throughout the site which give rise to specific local flora communities.
The dominant flora of the site is characterised as a wet heath composed of heather, purple moor-grass, cross-leaved heath, deergrass, bilberry and tormentil, and occasional bog-moss.
A repeated feature of the moors, notably found in the central parts of Bewick Moor and at Beanley Moss, are bogs formed in the depressions and basins abounding throughout the site, and on flat land found on higher ground above valleys. The bogs - waterlogged peat accumulations - fall in type between basin mires and blanket bogs, and are an important factor in the significance of the site on their own account, as they transition to other landforms, and because they are the easternmost examples in Britain of such habitats. Bog sites on the moors give rise to heather, cross-leaved heath, common and hare’s-tail cotton-grasses amongst a variety of bog-mosses including, and. Less common are crowberry, cranberry, bog asphodel and round-leaved sundew.
Transitional bogs sites of the sort found on the moors, within heathland, are uncommon and give rise to noteworthy flora. At a bog site west of Cateran Hill there is a transition into a fen supporting bottle-sedge, marsh cinquefoil, and the bog-moss. A Quarryhouse Moor example shows a transition from bog to an area of purple moor-grass, bottle sedge, star and carnation sedges, bog-moss, and related species.
Watercourses across the site support soft or sharp-flowered rush, haircap moss, and occasional associated flora such as star-sedge, marsh pennywort and bogbean.
Rich wetlands occur especially at the east of the moors and have species mixes arising in part out of the effects of a limestone understratum dominated by purple moor-grass with, in less-grazed areas, bog-myrtle, and in more-grazed areas, cross-leaved heath and tormentil, with sweet vernal-grass, Yorkshire fog, compact rush, sneezewort, marsh thistle and wild angelica, and limestone indicators including carnation, glaucous and flea sedges, fen bedstraw, tufted vetch and moss.
The site has local wetland areas strongly influenced by limestone characterised by marsh valerian, butterwort, lesser club-moss, grass-of-Parnassus, dioecious sedge, few-flowered spike-rush and black bog-rush. Dry limestone flora are for the most part not found on the moors, with the exception of areas of mat-grass.
Rocky outcrops on the site, when accompanied by free draining soil, provide habitat for heather, bilberry and bell-heather, with local dry-heath cowberry and petty-whin. Lesser twayblade is found in association with old collapsing heather bushes.
Conifer plantations aside, the moors have little woodland cover; what exists is found on the boundaries and following the paths of streams at lower elevations. Spwecies include alder, hawthorn, brown birch, rowan and occasional ash, and ground-cover of yellow pimpernel, wood sorrel and smooth-stalked sedge. As with the bogs, so the woodland also provide transition locations, such as from wet birch-wood to purple moor-grass or to bogs of lesser pond-sedge. Other wood species found include scrubs of eared sallow, acid oakwood, and, notably one of the largest stands of juniper in the county at Hannah's Wood, west of Eglingham.
Kimmer Lough, the largest of the many waterbodies across the moors, supports yellow water-lily and reed, surrounded by a willow woodland with bog-myrtle. Quarryhouse Moor Ponds, to the north-east of the middle section of the site, is notable as habitat for amphibians including great crested, palmate and smooth newts, the common frog and the common toad.
Additional notable features of the site are the presence of the large heath butterfly, the upland bird population, and stands of bracken with chickweed wintergreen.
;Condition
Bewick and Beanley Moors SSSI is divided into 25 units for monitoring purposes. Inspecations in 2009 and 2014 find the condition of the majority of units to be 'unfavourable-recovering', with over-grazing and unfavourable heather-burning regimes being the main causal issues.