Kirkcudbrightshire Botany Group at Big Water of Fleet Viaduct & rail bed, 9th May 2026
This meeting was to access and record 3 monads which each had only between 2 and 4 records, all from 1977. This was due to access being restricted by staunch metal railings and safety issues in the late 1980s. Some of these were removed in very recent years giving us access to NX5564, the actual viaduct, and NX5664 eastwards. 7 of us duly met under the viaduct and made our way to the rail bed some 30m above. These monads lay just outwith the Cairnsmore of Fleet NNR for which there are large numbers of records. Rail beds we have explored in the past have had an interesting and varied flora, so this was an occasion to expect something out of the ordinary.
The rail banking up to the viaduct gave us numerous species, including Smooth Lady’s Mantle Alchemilla glabra, Knapweed Centaurea nigra, a solitary shoot of a nettle (thanks to Bob Merritt) which looked suspiciously like Small Nettle Urtica urens but was too young to be sure of the id, Smith’s Pepperwort Lepidium heterophyllum and both Wild Strawberry Fragaria vesca and Barren Strawberry Potentilla sterilis. It also supported Lesser Trefoil Trifolium dubium, Tormentil Potentilla erecta, and Heath Speedwell Veronica officinalis. The bed of the viaduct itself was understandably of stone and had a sparse scattering of plants tolerant to harsh conditions, such as the horizontal and abundant Wall Cotoneaster Cotoneaster horizontalis, a barberry Berberis sp., Maidenhair Spleenwort Asplenium trichomanes and Wall Rue Asplenium ruta-muraria, several hawkweeds Hieracium spp. which defied identification, the seed heads of last year’s Fairy Flax Linum catharticum, and Restharrow Ononis repens (so named because of its thick roots’ ability to stop the earlier wooden ploughs or even break them). Early Hair Grass Aira praecox, Sweet Vernal Grass Anthoxanthum odoratum, Yorkshire Fog Holcus lanatus of the stripey pyjamas of the shoot base were present.
Amazing what the outer side of the stonework supported – many stunted Goat Willows Salix caprea, and Rowans Sorbus aucuparia quite apart from some of the previously described species. Beyond the viaduct, the banks were colonised by tall willows, Ash Fraxinus excelsior, Elder Sambucus nigra, the occasional Sycamore Acer pseudoplatanus, Gorse Ulex europaeus, Rowan and Broom Cytisus scoparius and behind them the inevitable forest species. The sheltered deciduous woodland held a number of woodland species – Wood Anemone Anemone nemorosa, Bluebell Hyacinthoides non-scripta, Wood Sorrel Oxalis acetosella and Dog Violet Viola riviniana.
This continued into the next monad (NX5664) where there was only a narrow strip between the rail bed and the commercial forestry, the intervening ground being generally damp and definitely acidic. Here we recorded Purple Moorgrass Molinia caerulea, scattered Bilberry Vaccinium myrtillus, Bell Heather Erica cinerea on the rock faces, Wild Angelica Angelica sylvestris and Bog Myrtle Myrica gale; ferns such as the delicately fronded Lady Fern Athyrium filix-femina, Broad-buckler Fern Dryopteris dilatata, Scaly Male Fern Dryopteris affinis and Hard Fern Blechnum spicant; Marsh Violet Viola palustris and Bog Stitchwort Stellaria alsine. There were a couple of sedges, one the Glaucous Sedge Carex flacca with a dark green upper surface and a paler bluish tinge to the underside of the leaves, along with, surprisingly, Slender Sedge Carex lasiocarpa with a very long and gradually tapering leaf ending in a whip-like tip and purplish brown sheaths at the base of the shoot. The latter species was unusual in that it is usually found in mires, but here there were only very small patches of this habitat. Three other sedge specimens were too problematic to positively identify them. We didn’t venture onto the third monad as the track became very muddy and in places waterlogged, with willow bushes beginning to grow on the rail bed.
In summary we had 75 species in the first monad (NX5564) which included both the railbed, the viaduct and the railway banks; 64 spp for the second monad (NX5664) of rail bed and narrow adjoining banks bordered by dense forestry (itka, and Norway spruce). Of the 106 species for the day, only 33 species were common to both monads. Not bad for a pre-2000 sum total 5 species, even if there was nothing notable! Thanks to everyone for joining in.
David Hawker
