Natural England

Wedholme Flow is a lowland raised mire or peat bog currently covering about 790ha of the Solway Plain to the west of Carlisle. It is one of four mires that comprise the south Solway Mosses SAC, which once probably covered 6000ha, but is now reduced to just under 2000ha, due to peat extraction for commercial (pot plants), domestic (burning) use and drainage for agriculture.

The mires have been dated at just under 10,000 years old, have up to 14 metres of peat and are an increasingly rare habitat in England supporting an unusual assemblage of peat forming sphagnum mosses, carnivorous plants, dragonflies, damselflies as well as a few specialist birds.

Until 2004 Wedholme Flow was inaccessible to the general public, but thanks to pressure by a number of conservation organisations, English Nature and the EEC, 152.95ha of the mire that was being mined of peat to supply the horticultural trade was bought out by English Nature. The cost of buying out the mineral rights in 2002 of Wedholme Flow and Thorne and Hatfield Moors in Yorkshire along with restoration works to allow the mosses to recolonise was £17.3m.

Restoration works on the mined area on Wedholme were completed in 2007 turning this part of the Flow from an unfavourable declining condition to unfavourable but recovering. At the same time the area was declared Open Access under the CRoW Act. These two actions have allowed Natural England to open up part of the mire to the general public through a number of way marked routes.

Further restoration work is being carried out on formerly cut areas of peat, and in the future we hope to extend the footpath network as well as providing interpretation and a viewing tower to allow visitors to get an elevated view of this rare habitat.

Access to Wedholme Flow is from a car park at GR NY237539 off the Wigton to Kirkbride Road. Information, waymarking and cycle racks are available.