Last weekend, on a trip 'up north', I decided to go the pretty way up the Pennines. After a call at a tourist information office I realised I would be almost passing the site of some of the famous Teesdale wildfowers and that the Spring Gentians would be in flower so I made the short detour to see them.
The site is a Nature reserve and you are not allowed to leave the tarmac track but there are plenty of flowers right next to it and it is very accessible. The Gentians flower on 'sugar limestone' outcrops and the area has been fenced off to keep out the sheep.
Cow Green Reservoir near Middleton-in-Teesdale, County Durham
Gentiana verna