The newly updated section brings together the many aspects to Natural History. It is a story of people and landscape, of what lies beneath and flows through, and of what lives and grows within the rich diversity of Uplands’ life.
We start with the The Natural History of Upper Teesdale which has seen five editions and is now web accessible for the first time. This book, the fifth edition published by Durham Wildlife Trust in 2018, has been described as the “standard reference work on the area’s natural heritage for years to come”.
A first edition of The Natural History of Weardale is planned for publication early in 2021, and will be a valuable companion to the Upper Teesdale book. We have had the advantage of being able to design this to be accessible in print and on this website.
In time, we plan to add specific areas that explore aspects of the region’s Natural History in greater depth. Beginning, appropriately, with a deeper look at the region’s geology, the Fairy Hole Caves in particular.
The Natural History of an area is the sum of all its parts. Upper Teesdale and Weardale would be described as ‘Uplands’. That one word description does not do justice to the variety and diversity of life and nature in these areas, often unique and particular to one place. They are as different to one another as they are to Exmoor, which is also ‘Upland’; even though most people would not generally think of Exmoor in the same way as the North Pennines, or Yorkshire Dales.
Meantime, there is more to explore on our Wildlife, Landscapes and Communities pages.