Take a trip to Fairburn Tips with Ecotalk

Under the ground, there was a warren of tunnels held up by coal pillars. Over the years, the extensive coal mining led to subsidence – the ground started sinking downwards where it had been hollowed out as it was mined. By the start of the 20th century these pits started to fill with water, creating a new marshland.

As subsidence continued and the areas of open water got bigger, the land was deemed to be only fit for tipping and became a giant spoil heap – a mound formed of material discarded during mining.

Eventually, Fairburn Tips became the largest spoil heap in Europe, and covered an area of 105 hectares.

So the hills and mounds at Fairburn Tips aren’t natural, but were in fact created when mining waste was dumped at the site.

In 1957 it happened - the area stopped being a spoil heap and became a reserve. Volunteers planted thousands of trees on the spoil heaps to encourage bird species to make a home there, including silver birch and oak saplings.

Volunteers continued to look after the land until the reserve was taken over by the RSPB in 1976.

It’s amazing to see a piece of land that was once used to mine coal - something which has contributed so massively to climate change - now being given back to nature, making a new home for wildlife.

There are now a huge number of bird species living there – some that you’d expect, like swans, geese, green woodpeckers, willow tits, tree sparrows and lapwings – but also some species that are rare such as bittern, bearded tit, Cetti’s warbler, little egret and spoonbills.

The reason there is such a huge variety of species is because there are a wide range of habitats at Fairburn. As well as wetland areas (which include open water, wet grassland, reedbed and wet woodland), there is also dry grassland and deciduous woodland.

You can find plenty of other wildlife at Fairburn Tips – not only birds! There are otters, roe deer, brown hares, and of course plenty of bees and butterflies.