The Carrs is a Site of Special Scientific Interest in the

Sedgefield Sedgefield is a market town and civil parish in County Durham, England. It had a population of 5,211 as at the 2011 census. It has the only operating racecourse in County Durham. History Roman A Roman 'ladder settlement' was discovered by C ...

district of County Durham,

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. It is situated on the eastern outskirts of

Ferryhill Ferryhill is a town in County Durham, England, with an estimated population in 2018 of 9,362. The town grew in the 1900s around the coal mining industry. The last mine officially closed in 1968. It is located between the towns of Bishop Auckland ...

, between the town and the East Coast Main Line railway. The Carrs is an area of wetland that has formed in the low-lying parts of a glacial

meltwater channel A meltwater channel (or sometimes a glacial meltwater channel) is a channel cut into ice, bedrock or unconsolidated deposits by the flow of water derived from the melting of a glacier or ice-sheet. The channel may form on the surface of, within ...

. A large part of the site is open water, which is fringed by

fen A fen is a type of peat-accumulating wetland fed by mineral-rich Groundwater, ground or surface water. It is one of the main types of wetlands along with marshes, swamps, and bogs. Bogs and fens, both peat-forming ecosystems, are also known as ...

vegetation. Woodland and

calcareous Calcareous () is an adjective meaning "mostly or partly composed of calcium carbonate", in other words, containing lime or being chalky. The term is used in a wide variety of scientific disciplines. In zoology ''Calcareous'' is used as an ad ...

grassland cover the steep slopes on the western side of the site, where there is also a disused quarry. The site's importance lies mainly in its areas of open water and fen vegetation, which are scarce habitats in lowland County Durham. There is also a small area of equally scarce magnesian

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

grassland, in which blue moor-grass, '' Sesleria albicans'', and glaucous sedge, '' Carex flacca'', are dominant. The site adjoins the Ferryhill Carrs Local Nature Reserve, which extends to the north, alongside the railway line.

References

Sites of Special Scientific Interest in County Durham Sites of Special Scientific Interest notified in 1988 {{Durham-geo-stub