Fyfield Down National Nature Reserve

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Overview

Fyfield Down is one of the country’s oldest NNRs, created in 1955. Part of Avebury World Heritage Site, it was made an NNR because of its sarcen boulders and the wildlife they support. Locally known as‘grey wethers’, as from a distance they look like sheep, the stones were used by Neolithic people to build the famous prehistoric monuments of Salisbury Plain, like the Avebury and Stonehenge stone circles. The stones of the reserve are also home to some rare lichen species. Elsewhere on the clay soil slopes small pockets of chalk grassland survive, while around the stones, little patches of acid grassland can be found. Wildflowers that bloom in spring and summer include the round-headed rampion and frog orchid, among others. The reserve supports a wide range of birds, including a breeding population of skylark, as well as large numbers of farmland birds such as lapwing, tree sparrow and stone curlew.

Location

Rockley

About the area

Wiltshire’s charm lies in the beauty of its countryside, with expansive chalk landscapes of the Marlborough and Pewsey downs and miles of uninterrupted views deep into Dorset, Somerset and the Cotswolds. Stroll through quaint timbered and thatched villages in the southern Woodford and Avon valleys and explore the historic streets of the stone villages of Lacock, Castle Combe and Sherston.