This photo was taken from Long Gutter Edge, looking SW back towards Torside Clough.
- The SE facing slope of Long Gutter Edge is in the foreground.
- It is covered with heather (mapped as D1, acid dry heath) growing on a thin layer of peat
- Below Long Gutter Edge on the lower slopes is bright green bracken.
- The new fronds had recently unfurled when this photo was taken in July.
- It likes deep, well drained soils.
- It is an invasory species which colonises abandoned pasture.
- On the lowest, wet ground in the centre of the photo, Juncus is found (brownish tones).
- As the slope rises up again towards Sykes Moor and the weather station, the sequence is repeated - bracken on the lower slopes with heather above, growing on thicker peat (E2).
- In the background is the steep western side of Torside Clough.
- The thin soils here are covered with heather and bilberry acid dry heath (D1 and D2).
- Clough Edge forms the skyline.
- The Pennine Way follows Clough Edge down to Torside Reservoir.