Events include Hikes, Open House Tours

Hillsborough, NC —(March 11, 2022) – Come spend a spring day at Hillsborough’s Historic Moorefields. This idyllic site sits at 2201 Moorefields Road, Hillsborough on 70 beautiful acres just 20 minutes from downtown Chapel Hill and Durham, NC, and a short drive from downtown Hillsborough. 

The annual spring wildflower hike is scheduled for Sunday, April 10. The hike explores the ridges and bottomlands proximate to Seven Mile Creek, one of Orange County’s most significant and undisturbed natural areas. The hike leader is Milo Pyne, an N.C. State-trained botanist and an expert on Piedmont wildflowers. The hike leaves Moorefields at 2 pm..  

The annual Introduction to Identifying Birds, or “Birding 101”, will be conducted on Saturday, May 7. The hike, from 8 am –10 am, will leave from Moorefields and be guided by Helen Kalevas, an expert on avian ecology who has taught ornithology lab and bird identification at Northern Arizona University. Please bring binoculars and prepare for insects and uneven terrain. (Rain date is May 8.)

Beginning the last Sunday of the month from April through September, come to Moorefields for open house tours to see the historic home and grounds. Volunteers will be present to answer questions and direct you to points of interest --artistic, historic and horticultural.

View artwork, sculpture and antiques. Visit two cemeteries, the old family burial ground and one near the house memorializing cats and former owner Edward Draper-Savage. Walk the trail on the adjoining Seven Mile Creek Nature Preserve. Stroll among hedges and hemlocks in the shaded back yard. Or just sit a spell in a rocker on the front porch and enjoy the quiet. The Last Sunday open houses take place from 1 – 5 pm beginning on April 24.

All spring hikes and the open house tours are free. A suggested donation goes to the Friends of Moorefields to help coordinate events such as these.  

Moorefields was built in 1785 as a summer home by Alfred Moore, a military, educational and judicial leader who ultimately served as the second and last North Carolinian on the U.S. Supreme Court. The property adjoins the trail and other amenities of Orange County’s 300-acre Seven Mile Creek Nature Preserve.  For more information, visit https://moorefields.org/ .
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Media Contacts: 
Mike Hammersley, President, Friends of Moorefields Board (919) 201-2284
Barry Jacobs, Executive Director, Friends of Moorefields (919) 880-5270

Photo  - Historic Moorefields’ expansive lawn by the Chapel Hill/Orange County Visitors Bureau