Castor Hanglands National Nature Reserve

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Overview

The Castor Hanglands NNR is a 90-hectare oasis of green, sited in an intensively farmed landscape. Its ancient woodlands, with their medieval boundary banks; the flowery heaths and commons with their 700-year-old cultivation ridges, transport you to the ancient past. Among the rare plants found at Caster Hanglands are the crested cow-wheat, lesser water-plantain, man orchid and narrow-leaved water dropwort. Woodland butterflies present include the silver-washed fritillary, purple hairstreak and white admiral. The extremely rare black hairstreak butterfly is best seen around the blackthorn scrub in June. Dense thickets of scrub provide a habitat for summer migrant birds such as the nightingale, garden warbler, grasshopper warbler and turtle dove. In the woodland, all three British woodpeckers – the green and greater and lesser spotted – occur, along with the secretive woodcock and the elusive hawfinch. Grass snakes are often seen by the ponds and harvest mouse occurs in the rough grassland on the heath.

Location

Ailsworth

About the area

To the west of East Anglia is Cambridgeshire, a county best known as the home to the university that makes up the second half of ‘Oxbridge’ (the other half is Oxford). As well as its globally renowned educational credentials, it also has a rich natural history; much of its area is made up of reclaimed or untouched fens.

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Ailsworth Cambridgeshire Things To Do in Cambridgeshire

Castor Hanglands National Nature Reserve

Ailsworth

01780 444704

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Castor Hanglands National Nature Reserve

Recommended by

Overview

The Castor Hanglands NNR is a 90-hectare oasis of green, sited in an intensively farmed landscape. Its ancient woodlands, with their medieval boundary banks; the flowery heaths and commons with their 700-year-old cultivation ridges, transport you to the ancient past. Among the rare plants found at Caster Hanglands are the crested cow-wheat, lesser water-plantain, man orchid and narrow-leaved water dropwort. Woodland butterflies present include the silver-washed fritillary, purple hairstreak and white admiral. The extremely rare black hairstreak butterfly is best seen around the blackthorn scrub in June. Dense thickets of scrub provide a habitat for summer migrant birds such as the nightingale, garden warbler, grasshopper warbler and turtle dove. In the woodland, all three British woodpeckers – the green and greater and lesser spotted – occur, along with the secretive woodcock and the elusive hawfinch. Grass snakes are often seen by the ponds and harvest mouse occurs in the rough grassland on the heath.

Location

Ailsworth

About the area

Area image

To the west of East Anglia is Cambridgeshire, a county best known as the home to the university that makes up the second half of ‘Oxbridge’ (the other half is Oxford). As well as its globally renowned educational credentials, it also has a rich natural history; much of its area is made up of reclaimed or untouched fens.

Explore Cambridgeshire

Nearby places to stay

View all (8)

Ailsworth Cambridgeshire Things To Do in Cambridgeshire