North Roe Meadow

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Top of the meadow; it extends to the left from the area where the path branches off

North Roe Meadow is since November 1994 as a site of special scientific interest dedicated nature reserve in the east of North Roe , a town in the north of Mainland , the main island of about Scotland belonging Shetlands . This is a 1.24  hectare meadow ( English meadow ) in which a small, rocky and therefore somewhat drier hill lies. It extends with a length of around 200 and a width of around 60 meters from the hamlet of Burravoe in a westerly direction to the floodplain of the Burn of Stourie stream.

On and on the hill are two species of the hawkweed genus , Hieracum zetlandicum and Hieracium northroense, which can only be found in the Shetlands . The latter is the largest known occurrence at all. The plants benefited from the use of the meadow to produce hay . For this, the sheep grazing on the area during the rest of the time were kept away from the pasture from mid-May to September. This enabled the hawkweeds to flower in larger numbers and subsequently to develop seeds. The grazing of the meadow in the rest of the time prevented the overhand of grasses and thus the displacement of the hawkweed.

Due to a change of owner who stopped the hay production and allowed the meadow to graze all year round, the area of ​​the hill was fenced in in 2001. Nevertheless, during the last inspection, which was carried out in August 2013, it was found that the hawkweed population is declining.

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Coordinates: 60 ° 35 ′ 20 ″  N , 1 ° 19 ′ 29 ″  W.