Divethill Restoration Plan Wins at MPA Awards

It was named as the overall winner of the Planned Biodiversity-led Restoration category.
The MPA praised the plan as a fantastic example of progressive restoration of a rock quarry to create an attractive landform and a mosaic of species-rich, locally important and distinctive ‘Whin’ grassland, agricultural grassland, woodland and hedges, and open water. The judges were impressed by the clear plan to deliver a range of habitats and realise the unique opportunity presented by quarrying to deliver regional priorities and wider landscape-scale benefits.
Donald Wilkins, Development Planner, said: “Through early engagement with the Northumberland Wildlife Trust, the RSPB, Northumberland County Council and Magnificent Meadows, it was clear that the restoration at Divethill Quarry provided an opportunity to create new areas of species rich grasslands and whin grasslands, both of which have been in decline over the past few decades.”
“CEMEX is delighted to have won the ‘Planned Biodiversity-led Restoration’ and will continue to work with our partner organisations to maximise the benefits from the restoration of our quarries.”
The restoration plan is to create a grassland with whin ridge/escarpment and outcrops (locally named as ‘heughs’) within a mosaic of species-rich grasslands with subtly varying soil types. Additionally, native woodland to the south and a small waterbody will add diversity and act as a hub for wildlife (both local and on passage). Whin grasslands are closely associated with the ‘Great Whin Sill’ a quartz dolerite intrusion upon which Hadrian’s Wall is located.
The thin soils found there are base-rich but nutrient-poor and prone to drought, which has led to the development of a species-rich sward, a composite of both acid- and alkali-loving plants. Whole hosts of specialist wildflowers and numerous red listed upland birds and mammals and national scarce species can be found; maiden pink, wild onion, biting stonecrop, common rock-rose, wild thyme, salad burnet, the locally scarce small-flowered and long-stalked crane’s-bills. Birds and mammals include brown hare, peregrine, yellowhammer, linnet, curlew and whinchat.