Brada Hill
Brada Hill is a small hill escarpment near the coast of north Northumberland in North East England, designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest. The site is an outcropping of a local stone group, the Whin Sill, on which grows a range of flora representative of the thin, drought-prone soil conditions and influenced by the underlying geology.
Location and natural features
Brada Hill is a small quarried hill situated west-south-west of the coastal town of Bamburgh in Northumberland and south of Budle Bay. The hill has a pronounced semicircular southern escarpment falling from to above sea level, exposing the Winn Sill's dolerite stone; this is the focus of the SSSI, which extends to and is concerned with the assemblage of flora suited to very well drained thin soil. The surrounding land is pastoral farmland; Spinglestone Heughs and Bradford Kames SSSIs are to the west and the south-west.Vegetation
Brada Hill's escarpment has flourishing populations of plants suited to a thin dry soil, including maiden pink and wild onion amidst red fescue, crested hair-grass and early hair-grass. Annual flora at the site include hare's-foot clover, knotted trefoil, forget-me-not and dove's-tail cranesbill Perennial flora include common rock-rose, biting stonecrop and meadow oat-grass. A number of coarse grasses including false oat-grass, and herbs including red campion, hogweed and common nettle, grow in isolated areas of deeper soil. Heath pearlwort, as well as grasses, wild onion and maiden pink grow amidst slab rocks which form the hill top. Despite proximity with the sea, maritime flora is not found at the site.The condition of Brada Hill was judged to be favourable in 2009.