County Durham is probably best known for Upper Teesdale, with its rugged scenery and a broad range of rare species in its arctic-alpine flora. There are several published guides to the Teesdale flora.

Most of the national rarities are easily seen from the Durham side of the Tees, along the track going south from the Cow Green Reservoir car park (NY8130) to the stunning Cauldron Snout cascade. For the Yorkshire side of the Tees, the best route is the more strenuous path from Hanging Shaw car park (NY8629) south-westwards across the Tees to Cronkley Fell.

For both routes, the best places to see the plants are in the fenced-off “exclosures”.

A third popular route is to follow the River Tees from the Low Force to the High Force waterfalls, mostly along the Pennine Way on the Yorkshire side. This route has fewer of the rare plants, but makes up for this with fantastic scenery.

In the east of the county, the magnesian limestone grasslands are the main attraction, with Blue Moor Grass, Birds Eye Primrose, Perennial Flax and the best UK populations of Dark Red Helleborine. The best sites for visitors are Thrislington NNR (NZ3132) and the Durham Wildlife Trust’s Bishop Middleham Quarry (NZ3332).

These are both about three miles from the Durham Services Junction 61 on the A1(M).

There are a number of other “mag lime” sites, detailed in a DWT publication “Magical Meadows”. The South Shields coast, including Harton Downhill (NZ3965) and Marsden Old Quarry LWS (NZ3964) are particularly interesting.

Where the magnesian limestone meets the sea, there are superb dene woodlands. The best sites for visitors are Castle Eden Dene NNR (NZ4239) and the Durham Wildlife Trust’s Hawthorn Dene (NZ4245).

Most of the Durham coast can be accessed from a scenic coastal  footpath. In the Hartlepool area, Hart Warren Dunes (NZ4936) and Seaton Dunes NNR (NZ5328) are important coastal grasslands.

In the north of the county, the Derwent Valley has extensive ancient woodlands, with visitor facilities at Gateshead Council’s Thornley Woodlands Centre (NZ1760) and the National Trust’s Gibside Estate (NZ1758). The Derwent Walk Country Park links these woodlands with a number of Forestry Commission, DWT and Woodland Trust properties, extending to over 1000 hectares of species-rich woodlands in the scenic Derwent Valley.

The coalfield area has now few signs of its industrial past, but does have an interesting range of wetlands, some of them resulting from mining subsidence. The best example is the DWT reserve at Shibdon Pond (NZ1962), near the Metrocentre.

The best riparian wetland is the DWT reserve at Low Barns, Witton-le-Wear (NZ1631).

There are site floras or checklists for most of the important botanical sites, downloadable from this web page. Guides to the DWT reserves can be downloaded from their website.

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