Dabble Bank is a Site of Special Scientific Interest

Site of Special Scientific Interest

A Site of Special Scientific Interest is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom. SSSIs are the basic building block of site-based nature conservation legislation and most other legal nature/geological conservation designations in Great Britain are based upon...

 in the Easington

Easington (district)

Easington was, from 1974 to 2009, a local government district in eastern County Durham, England. It contained the settlements of Easington, Seaham, Peterlee, Murton, Horden, Blackhall, Wingate and Castle Eden...

 district of County Durham

County Durham

County Durham is a ceremonial county and unitary district in north east England. The county town is Durham. The largest settlement in the ceremonial county is the town of Darlington...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. It lies about 1 km west of the village of Haswell

Haswell

Haswell may refer to:Places:*Haswell, County Durham, England, with neighbouring villages of:**High Haswell**Haswell Moor**Haswell Plough*Haswell Grange*Haswell, Colorado, United States of America...

 and about 9 km east of the city of Durham

Durham

Durham is a city in north east England. It is within the County Durham local government district, and is the county town of the larger ceremonial county...

.

The site is important for its communities of nationally-scarce grassland on Magnesian Limestone

Magnesian Limestone

The Magnesian Limestone is a suite of rocks in north-east England dating from the Permian period. The outcrop stretches from Nottingham northwards through Yorkshire and into County Durham where it is exposed along the coast between Hartlepool and South Shields...

 and in particular for its unusual location, in a small valley cut into the limestone plateau.

A feature of the site is grassland characterised by downy oat-grass, Avenula pubescens, this being a vegetation type

British NVC community CG6

NVC community CG6 is one of the calcicolous grassland communities in the British National Vegetation Classification system. It is one of four communities of rank, tussocky grassland associated with low levels of grazing, within the lowland calcicolous grassland group.It is a comparatively widely...

 which nationally has a scattered distribution on lowland limestones and which is rare in County Durham. Among the species found is the pyramidal orchid

Pyramidal orchid

The Pyramidal Orchid, Anacamptis pyramidalis, is an herbaceous perennial plant belonging to the Genus Anacamptis of the family Orchidaceae...

, Anacamptis pyramidalis, which is rare in the county.