Arnside and Silverdale National Landscape (legally and previously known as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty or AONB) in England, is on the border between

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

and

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders the Scottish council areas of Dumfries and Galloway and Scottish Borders to the north, Northumberland and County Durham to the east, North Yorkshire to the south-east, Lancash ...

, adjoining

Morecambe Bay Morecambe Bay is an estuary in north-west England, just to the south of the Lake District National Park. It is the largest expanse of intertidal mudflats and sand in the United Kingdom, covering a total area of . In 1974, the second largest ga ...

. One of the smallest

National Landscape An Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB; , AHNE) is one of 46 areas of rural area, countryside in England, Wales, or Northern Ireland that has been designated for protected area, conservation due to its significant landscape value. Since 202 ...

s, it covers 29 square miles (75 km²) between the

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

Estuary, the

River Keer The River Keer is a river in Northern England. It flows for through the English counties of Lancashire and Cumbria. For parts of its course, the Keer marks the boundary between Lancashire and Cumbria, as well as the ancient counties of Lancas ...

and the

A6 road This is a list of roads designated A6. * A006 road (Argentina), a road connecting Las Cuevas with the Christ the Redeemer monument in the border between Argentina and Chile * ''A6 highway (Australia)'' may refer to : ** A6 (Sydney), a road conn ...

. It was designated in 1972.

Description

The area is characterised by low hills of Carboniferous Limestone, including

Arnside Knott Arnside Knott is a hill with a summit elevation of , near Arnside, Cumbria, England. It is not in the Lake District National Park, lying south of the River Kent which forms the south eastern boundary of the national park. It is within the Arnsi ...

(522 feet) and

Warton Crag Warton Crag is a limestone hill in north west Lancashire, England. It lies to the north west of Warton village, in City of Lancaster district. At it is the highest point in the Arnside and Silverdale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and ...

(535 feet), interspersed with grassland. Much of the area is covered by

deciduous In the fields of horticulture and botany, the term deciduous () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed Leaf, leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, aft ...

woodland, in which ash,

oak An oak is a hardwood tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' of the beech family. They have spirally arranged leaves, often with lobed edges, and a nut called an acorn, borne within a cup. The genus is widely distributed in the Northern Hemisp ...

, and

hazel Hazels are plants of the genus ''Corylus'' of deciduous trees and large shrubs native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere. The genus is usually placed in the birch family, Betulaceae,Germplasmgobills Information Network''Corylus''Rushforth, K ...

predominate. The coastal area contains large extents of

salt marsh A salt marsh, saltmarsh or salting, also known as a coastal salt marsh or a tidal marsh, is a coastal ecosystem in the upper coastal intertidal zone between land and open saltwater or brackish water that is regularly flooded by the tides. I ...

, although these are under threat from the shifting channel of the

Kent Estuary Kent is a ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Greater London to the north-west. ...

The RSPB Leighton Moss, Leighton Moss nature reserve, owned by the

RSPB The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is a Charitable_organization#United_Kingdom, charitable organisation registered in Charity Commission for England and Wales, England and Wales and in Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator, ...

, is the largest area of

reedbed A reedbed or reed bed is a natural habitat found in floodplains, waterlogged depressions and estuaries. Reedbeds are part of a succession from young reeds colonising open water or wet ground through a gradation of increasingly dry ground. As ...

s in

North West England North West England is one of nine official regions of England and consists of the ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial counties of Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside. The North West had a population of 7,4 ...

, and is an

Important Bird Area An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations. IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Int ...

.BirdLife International (2015) Important Bird Areas factsheet: Leighton Moss. Downloaded from on 08/01/2015 The

bittern Bitterns are birds belonging to the subfamily Botaurinae of the heron family Ardeidae. Bitterns tend to be shorter-necked and more secretive than other members of the family. They were called ''hæferblæte'' and various iterations of ''rared ...

, one of the resident species, has been adopted as the logo of the AONB. In addition, there are fifteen SSSIs in the area; one of these, Gait Barrows National Nature Reserve, is home to some rare species of

butterfly Butterflies are winged insects from the lepidopteran superfamily Papilionoidea, characterized by large, often brightly coloured wings that often fold together when at rest, and a conspicuous, fluttering flight. The oldest butterfly fossi ...

including the

high brown fritillary ''Fabriciana adippe'', the high brown fritillary, is a large and brightly colored butterfly of the family Nymphalidae, native to Europe and across the Palearctic to Japan. It is known for being Great Britain's most threatened butterfly and is li ...

Arnside Arnside is a village and civil parish in Westmorland and Furness, Cumbria, England. It is Historic counties of England, historically part of Westmorland, near the border with Lancashire, England. The Lake District National parks of England and ...

and Silverdale are the main villages in the area. Other settlements include Warton,

Yealand Redmayne Yealand Redmayne is a village in the civil parish of The Yealands, in the Lancaster district, in the county of Lancashire, England. In 2011 the former parish of Yealand Redmayne had a population of 326. Community The civil parish also include ...

Beetham Beetham is a village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Westmorland and Furness, Cumbria, England. It is situated on the border with Lancashire, north of Carnforth. It is part of the Arnside and Silverdale, Arnside and Silverdale ...

and Storth.

Landscape Trust

The AONB is supported by the Landscape Trust, a registered charity with over 1000 members. Its activities include ownership and management of several nature reserves and the production of a journal ''Keer to Kent''.

References

External links

* *
Walks around Arnside & Silverdale

{{Authority control Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty in England Protected areas established in 1972 Protected areas of Cumbria Protected areas of Lancashire Arnside Morecambe Bay Silverdale, Lancashire