Farndale: Rather Less Yellow Than Expected

Last Friday’s trip to Farndale, home of the famous wild daffodils was, if truth be told, rather a mixed blessing.

The display was, shall we say, not quite the riot of yellow one might have hoped for. The far bank of the River Dove, where the public cannot go, looked considerably more impressive. Years of well-meaning visitors trampling the near bank have clearly left their mark. But perhaps we are all too spoilt by the great walls of cultivated daffodils that line every churchyard and roadside verge in England.

Still, history gives the place its due weight. In 1955, just three years after the North York Moors National Park was created, Farndale became a Local Nature Reserve. The urgent business was to stop people digging up the bulbs and carting them off, which was doing the population no good whatsoever. The wild daffodil, also called the Lent Lily because it blooms and fades between Ash Wednesday and Easter, is a delicate thing. Its cup is darker than its petals — unlike the brash Spanish daffodil, where everything is the same colour throughout¹‘William Wordsworth and the History of the Daffodil’. 2020. The Historic England Blog <https://heritagecalling.com/2020/04/07/william-wordsworth-and-the-history-of-the-daffodil/#:~:text=The%20wild%20native%20daffodil%20has%20a%20corona%20(cup)%20which%20is%20darker%20than%20the%20petals%20(tepals).%20This%20feature%20helps%20to%20differentiate%20it%20from%20other%20introduced%20daffodils%2C%20such%20as%20the%20Spanish%20daffodil%2C%20where%20the%20corona%20is%20the%20same%20colour%20as%20the%20tepals> [accessed 20 March 2026].

Then there is the Wordsworth question. His poem of 1798-99, “She dwelt among the untrodden ways,” places the solitary Lucy near the “springs of Dove.”²‘A to Z: A Flock of Fs’, The Official Blog for the North York Moors National Park. 2016. <https://northyorkmoorsnationalpark.wordpress.com/2016/02/29/a-to-z-a-flock-of-fs/#:~:text=Farndale%20is%20probably%20the%20most%20famous%20dale%20in%20the%20North%20York%20Moors%2C%C2%A0mainly%20due%20to%20its%20population%20of%20wild%20daffodils%20which%20bring%20the%20visitors%20in%20spring%20to%20admire%20the%20golden%20views> [accessed 20 March 2026] This may well be the very River Dove that winds down through Farndale to meet the Rye. Wordsworth was no stranger to Yorkshire — he married Mary Hutchinson at Brompton by Sawden, near Scarborough. Though there are other River Doves in Westmorland and Derbyshire, so the matter remains pleasantly unresolved, as poetry usually does.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

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  ‘William Wordsworth and the History of the Daffodil’. 2020. The Historic England Blog <https://heritagecalling.com/2020/04/07/william-wordsworth-and-the-history-of-the-daffodil/#:~:text=The%20wild%20native%20daffodil%20has%20a%20corona%20(cup)%20which%20is%20darker%20than%20the%20petals%20(tepals).%20This%20feature%20helps%20to%20differentiate%20it%20from%20other%20introduced%20daffodils%2C%20such%20as%20the%20Spanish%20daffodil%2C%20where%20the%20corona%20is%20the%20same%20colour%20as%20the%20tepals> [accessed 20 March 2026]
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  ‘A to Z: A Flock of Fs’, The Official Blog for the North York Moors National Park. 2016. <https://northyorkmoorsnationalpark.wordpress.com/2016/02/29/a-to-z-a-flock-of-fs/#:~:text=Farndale%20is%20probably%20the%20most%20famous%20dale%20in%20the%20North%20York%20Moors%2C%C2%A0mainly%20due%20to%20its%20population%20of%20wild%20daffodils%20which%20bring%20the%20visitors%20in%20spring%20to%20admire%20the%20golden%20views> [accessed 20 March 2026]