This month’s walk started from Snailbeach Car Park with the intention of heading straight up the hill towards Blakemoorgate Cottages, but with lots of new faces (including a well behaved inquisitive sheepdog) the first few minutes were spent on a round of introductions and explanation of the purpose of the RVCWG. RVCWG brings together like-minded people who are interested in all aspects of nature and their local environment and walk together to discover fauna and flora of all different kinds – with the rule of thumb being that if you find something, then share it.
After placing a donation in the box for car parking we headed up into Snailbeach to the lead mines – a scheduled monument , exploring under the old yew trees to find some collared earth star fungi, then up through the woods to the Resting Hill Chimney. The chimney was built in 1885 to vent the smoke from the mine’s pumping engines and the smelter located nearly a mile away. We then walked up through the woods and out onto the sheep-grazed grassland to the cottages at the top. With all the wet and mild weather we had recently – it turned into a bit of a fungi walk, we spotted shaggy scaly caps, matt boletes, firerug inkcaps and puffballs.
The group spread out quickly along the top of the hill, those with longer legs and a thirst for finding pink ballerina waxcaps led the way, whilst the slowest amongst us plodding happily behind, finding parasols at various stages and sharing small finds of leaf mines and various different galls and learning from each other about the history of the area.
Although there were no ballerina pink waxcap fungi to be found, there were fantastic specimens of crimson waxcaps, blackening waxcaps, and the self-named ‘shaggy poo fungus’ although sad to report today, that Clive’s coveted very first fly agaric had been somewhat flattened by the resident cattle. Taking in the views from Blakemoor Cottages of the Long Mountain and over towards Rodney’s Pillar, we headed back downhill, along the top ridge of The Hollies Nature Reserve, stopping to see the late 18th Century Lordshill Baptisit Church and continuing down Lordshill, rounding back to the start point in the car park.
A thoroughly enjoyable walk and great to see some enthusiastic new faces. The more the merrier!
