MoorLIFE project sites: Turley Holes

The Turley Holes and Higher House Moor project site, owned by Yorkshire Water, covered 665 hectares of Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) blanket bog.

This area was home to a variety of moorland plants, such as cottongrasses – sedges which grow in boggy conditions. The fluffy white 'cotton' heads seen in May and June, were used to stuff pillows as an alternative to goose down.

The South Pennine moors are key to the world distribution of the endangered twite or Pennine finch and this site was part of England’s ‘Twite Triangle’.

The work saw 1200 bags of heather cuttings flown in and spread and over half a kilometre of geo-textile was used to stabilise the bare peat.

To create ideal growing conditions 360 tonnes of lime and fertiliser were spread and nearly five tonnes of grass and heather seed were sown to kick-start the revegetation process.

An area was fenced off and 60 million sphagnum fragments were spread and 23,000 native moorland plug plants of species such as Bilberry and Crowberry were introduced to help revegetation.

Turley Holes is south of Hebden Bridge and can be accessed from the B6138. It lies on the Pennine, Rochdale and Calderdale Ways.