Castle Eden Dene National Nature Reserve is a mysterious tangled landscape of trees, rocky out crops and steep cliffs and a survivor of the 'wildwood' that once covered much ofBritain. Located on Durham's urban fringe, the reserve covers 221 hectares of woodland, famous for its majestic Yew trees and stands of ancient Oak and Ash, and lowland grassland, where post glacial meltwaters have carved out spectacular limestone cliffs and gorges. The Dene is 3.5 miles long and the largest of a series of valleys which run down tothe coast between Sunderland and Hartlepool, Castle Eden Burn however is now season aland there is often no water in the gorge when it disappears into the limestone rock during the summer.
