Site description:
RSPB Fairburn Ings is a 286 hectare site situated alongside the River Aire, near Castleford. The landscape of this part of the Aire Valley has been changed by 150 years of mining. All areas of open water on the reserve have been formed as a result of the subsidence of coal workings up to half a kilometre underground. One third of the site has been developed from 26 million cubic metres of colliery spoil which have been landscaped to create a large complex of grassland, wetland and woodland, ideal for an abundance of wildlife.Townclose Hills is a prominent knoll of magnesian limestone in the small town of Kippax, east of Leeds. It is about 22 hectares in size and comprises a steep-sided grassland plateau with woodland, wildflower meadows, extensive scrub and a disused railway cutting with exposed limestone and shallow, spring-fed pools. Letchmire Pastures is a small site on the edge of the village of Allerton Bywater that has recently been transformed from a coal store to a wildlife haven consisting of mainly wetland and grassland with some areas of scrub and trees. |
