Jane Tomlinson's Walk for All in the Yorkshire Dales!

On Sunday over 2000 people have registered to take part in the Jane Tomlinson Walk for All, Yorkshire Dales Walking Festival. With 4 walks varying in length from 26 miles to 4 miles, the inaugural walk is fully booked. 

By pulling on their walking boots, many participants will be fundraising for one of the following event partner charities. Macmillan Cancer Support, NSPCC, Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, Pendleside Hospice, Parkinsons UK, Epilepsy Action, Heart Research, East Lancashire Hospice, Martin House Hospice, Yorkshire Cancer Research, and The Jane Tomlinson Appeal.

Malham Tarn Field Centre will be a refreshment stop for 650 people taking part in the 26 mile walk and the people on the 4.5 mile Walk and Wheel route.

Good luck to everyone on their walks!

If you want to volunteer to support the participants on the day there is still time, contact

Email volunteer@runforall.com for more details.

BBC Radio 4 Limestone Pavement Show

Listen to the recent broadcast on Limestone Pavement from the Three peaks area of the Yorkshire Dales. 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007qyz3

BBC Chase rare Caddisfly

The team from the BBC Radio 4 show, The Living World stayed at the centre at the start of July to find a rare Caddisfly found at Malham Tarn. The show is a Natural history programme which aims to broadcast the best, most intimate encounters with British wildlife.

The incredibly rare Caddisfly which only has a Latin name Aqrypnia Crassicornis, is a flightless. In the UK it has only ever been found at Malham Tarn, however can be found in other countries like Mongolia, Estonia and Finland. The team of 3 stayed at the centre for 2 nights to hunt for the elusive Caddisfly. 

To see how the team got on with their hunt kisten to the show. It is due to be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 August 21st at 06.35am, however it will also be available soon after for broadcast on the BBC i-player. 

Yorkshire Naturalist Union 150th Anniversary

On the 29th July to 1st August Yorkshire Naturalists Union met at Malham Tarn to celebrate 150 years of recording and conservation in Yorkshire. Around 40 people came to stay for either the day or for the whole weekend, so they could look around the Malham Tarn area. If it swam, flew, grew or died, it was counted and identified. The group set off during the day in many smaller groups to investigate things in their own field of interest.  The weekend was a great success and many of the group have promised to come back soon. Congratulations to the YNU on their Anniversary and wish them many more years of success.

If you would like to use Malham Tarn Field Centre as a venue please contact the office on 01729 830 331 or enquiries.mt@field-studies-council.org

Swallows and Malham Tarn

For the past few years Swallows have nested in North Wing building over one of the main entrances. This year once again the parents have laid eggs and four have hatched into young. The babies hatched a couple of weeks ago and are doing very well. The mother and father have been bringing food back to the young regularly and the chicks have grown very fast.

End of June to mid July

At the end of the exam period, centre has become very busy again with 24 groups visiting centre since June 18th. We have had a mixture of A level and Primary groups at centre for mainly residential trips with a few day visits.

Minsthorpe Community College, Titus Salt, Batley Girls, Kirkham Grammar, Quegs, Acrington and Adcote, Rugby School, Sale Grammar, KESH Academy, Highfields School, Ecclesbourne School all visited to start their A2 Biology course ready for next year. Claire's Court and Bexley Grammar also started their A2 Geography course.


Dixons Allerton, Tauheedul Girls, Gateways School and Ripon Grammar studied rivers and tourism as topics for their GCSE controlled assessment.


Primary School groups who took part in a variety of activities around the centre where Cracoe and Rhylstone brought their whole school of both KS1 and KS2 pupils. Giggleswick Primary, Rauceby Primary and Meanwood Primary all brought their KS2 students. They took part in a variety of activities including woods, ponds, rivers, team games and conservation activities.


Newcastle School for Boys brought Yr 7 students to take part in adventure activities and learn about the rocks and scenery of the area. Framingham Earl from Norfolk took part in their Discovery award for their John Muir course. Finally St Aiden's did a Freshwater day for their Environmental Science A level.

The weather has been fairly nice with some days reaching temperatures of 24 degrees, which has been good for all the fieldwork.

We have had Emily Cooke a work experience student from Upper Wharfdale School at the centre for two weeks. Emily has taken part in many aspects of centre life, from helping in  the kitchen and cleaning some of the rooms in centre to experiencing fieldwork data collection for A level Geography and Biology.


There are some changes to education staff at the Tarn. Liz Earley our trainee tutor has been promoted to Tutor at the Snowdonia Centre Rhyd-y-Creau. We would like to wish her all the best in her new role. Jennie Richardson will be a new trainee tutor at the centre. Jennie has spent time recently teaching at our Derrygonnelly centre in Northern Ireland, we would like to welcome Jennie to the team at Malham.

How many members of staff do you need to evict a vole?

As part of the courses that we run at Malham Tarn Field Centre we trap small mammals using Longworth traps. They are set overnight in woodland around the centre, and staff and students go to check them in the morning. The traps used give the creatures food and a warm safe bed for the night away from predators, so they are not harmed. Species normally caught are Wood Mice and Bank Voles.


However to our surprise we found a lonely vole in the common room today. We managed to catch the vole and release him into woodlands out of the house. The only possible way the vole could have got into the centre would be via a window. Being set in the middle of woodlands in a National Trust Estate in a National Park does mean we sometimes have some interesting visitors.