SWT Reserves
Living between the Mendip Hills and the Somerset Levels I have access to a great variety of Somerset Wildlife Trust reserves. On these reserves there is something to visit all year - Starlings on the levels in winter, spring flowers and summer butterflies on the limestone grasslands, an autumn colour in the woodlands.
All the reserves have public access except Chancellors Farm.
1. Lynchcombe
This south-west facing reserve is divided by a steep sided woodland valley - the combe. This reserve has some of the best views in Somerset. View Album
2. Black Rock
The car park at Black Rock has provided the starting point for many family walks across the Mendip Hills to Cheddar, or along to Velvet Bottom and Longwood. View Album
3. Cooks Fields
These fields are mainly unimproved grassland with limestone outcrops. Exposed on the Mendip scarp this reserve has fantastic views across the levels. View Album
4. Draycott Sleights
The Sleights is famous for its limestone grasslands, panoramic views, and its line of beech trees that are visible for miles around. View Album
5. Long Wood
Long Wood is an ancient woodland valley high up in the Mendip Hills. In spring there are spectacular carpets of bluebells and wild garlic. Just outside the wood is a bank rich in orchids. View Album
6. King's Castle Wood
Bluebells in the recently cleared hazel coppice, and paths through autumn colours up to the an ancient iron age hill fort on the outskirts of Wells.View Album
7. Westhay
The Somerset Wildlife Trust reserve at Westhay is an interesting habitat of reed beds and water channels, providing the perfect home for many wetland species. View Album
8. Yarley Fields
These fields are full of flowers, grasshoppers and crickets during spring. The lower vantage point provides opportunities for a closer view across the Levels than from up on the Mendips.View Album
9. Chancellor's Farm
I visit to the farm to attend reserve manager meetings. Normally there is no public access Chancellor's Farm so look out for public open days. View Album
10. Velvet Bottom
A series of fields stepping up from Black Rock towards Charterhouse. This grassland is rich in archaeology as well as plants.View Album
11. GB Gruffy
This reserve that streams that disappear into swallets, collapsed caves, old mineshafts, and bluebells that grow in the open rather than in woodland.View Album
