Farleton Knott

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Farleton Knott is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Cumbria, England. It lies about 6 km west of Kirkby Lonsdale, near Farleton. The protected area covers 702 acres (2.8 square kilometres) and was designated in 1988.

The site features a remarkable limestone pavement across the top of a hill called Farleton Fell. It also includes Newbiggin Crags, Holme Park Fell, and Clawthorpe Fell, a National Nature Reserve that sits inside Holme Park Quarry. The hill is made of Carboniferous limestone with pavement on several sides.

Habitats include open pavement, pavement with scrub or woodland, calcareous grassland, and scree slopes. Plants include the dark-red helleborine orchid and bloody crane's-bill; ferns such as limestone fern, holly fern, rigid buckler-fern, maidenhair spleenwort, hart's-tongue fern and wall-rue. In calcareous grassland you can find thyme, dropwort, limestone bedstraw and squinancywort. Scrub and trees are sparse due to grazing, but ash, sycamore, hazel and hawthorn are common, with yew and juniper also present.

Its importance comes from limestone pavements surrounding an isolated hill that stood in the path of glacial ice during the last Ice Age. Some pavements are flat (Newbiggin Crags) and some are tilted (Farleton Knott). Weathering has created features called rundkarren (rounded channels) and kamenitza (long pools) on the rock surface.

Part of the land is owned by the National Trust as Holme Park Fell. Holme Park Quarry and Clawthorpe Fell are owned by Aggregate Industries and have been managed for nature by Cumbria Wildlife Trust since 2021.