Qualla: Upper Teesdale https://qualla.com/upper-teesdale en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:24 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/w/r/upper-teesdale-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Upper Teesdale https://qualla.com/upper-teesdale Upper Teesdale: Introduction https://qualla.com/upper-teesdale/ Photo credit Nilfanion, created using Ordnance Survey data, CC BY-SA 3.0. When the last Ice Age ended, the tundra plants of northern England retreated north as the climate warmed. Almost all of them are now found only in the Arctic and the high Alps. Almost. In one specific patch of the upper River Tees catchment, on a strange friable rock called sugar limestone, a handful of those plants stayed - and they are still there. Upper Teesdale is one of the most important botanical sites in Britain, and the reason is essentially an accident of geology.

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Image: Nilfanion, created using Ordnance Survey data | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/w/r/upper-teesdale-wp/gcwr-upper-teesdale-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Upper Teesdale: Where the Tees Begins https://qualla.com/upper-teesdale/ Photo credit Nilfanion, created using Ordnance Survey data, CC BY-SA 3.0. Upper Teesdale is a Site of Special Scientific Interest covering an extensive upland in west County Durham, England. It includes the headwaters of the River Tees and the surrounding catchment upstream of the small village of Langdon Beck. From the air it looks like much of the re...

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Image: Nilfanion, created using Ordnance Survey data | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/w/r/upper-teesdale-wp/gcwr-upper-teesdale-where-the-tees-begins.mp3 0:06 2 full Upper Teesdale: The Teesdale Assemblage https://qualla.com/upper-teesdale/ Photo credit Nilfanion, created using Ordnance Survey data, CC BY-SA 3.0. Botanists call them the "Teesdale rarities" - a group of plants that include spring gentian (Gentiana verna, an intense blue flower more familiar from Alpine pastures), Teesdale violet (Viola rupestris), bird's-eye primrose (Primula farinosa), Scottish asphodel (Tofieldia pusilla...

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Image: Nilfanion, created using Ordnance Survey data | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/w/r/upper-teesdale-wp/gcwr-upper-teesdale-the-teesdale-assemblage.mp3 0:06 3 full Upper Teesdale: Sugar Limestone https://qualla.com/upper-teesdale/ Photo credit Nilfanion, created using Ordnance Survey data, CC BY-SA 3.0. The rock that makes Upper Teesdale botanically unique is informally known as sugar limestone, because when you handle it you can crumble it between your fingers like coarse, dirty sugar. It is metamorphosed limestone - heated and recrystallised by contact with the molten rock tha...

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Image: Nilfanion, created using Ordnance Survey data | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/w/r/upper-teesdale-wp/gcwr-upper-teesdale-sugar-limestone.mp3 0:06 4 full Upper Teesdale: Birds and Borders https://qualla.com/upper-teesdale/ Photo credit Nilfanion, created using Ordnance Survey data, CC BY-SA 3.0. The SSSI also supports internationally important populations of breeding waders - golden plover, dunlin, lapwing, curlew, snipe, redshank - and a number of rare invertebrates whose ranges are similarly restricted. Geologically, the site includes several locations of national impo...

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Image: Nilfanion, created using Ordnance Survey data | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/w/r/upper-teesdale-wp/gcwr-upper-teesdale-birds-and-borders.mp3 0:06 5 full