Farlington Marshes

Farlington Marshes, just across the Broom Channel from Portsea Island and the teeming city centre, are right in Portsmouth’s back garden. Cut off from the north by the busy A27 and surrounded on three sides by Langstone Harbour, this peaceful wildlife reserve has been managed by the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust since 1962.

Today these low-lying fields are internationally important for wildlife. The grassland areas are bright with butterflies and summer wild flowers, which include rarities such as sea barley, bulbous foxtail and slender hare’s-ear. Summer is also the time to see breeding lapwing and skylark, while in winter the fields offer grazing and shelter to thousands of brent geese. Other birds to look out for in and around the lagoons and reedbeds include bearded tits, wigeon, teal and black-tailed godwits.

But the site also has a fascinating history. The marshes as you’ll see them now were created in the late 18th century, when the Lord of the Manor of Farlington reclaimed them from Langstone Harbour by linking some of the islands with a clay and timber wall. From that time, the marshes have provided rich grazing meadows and cattle were once raised here.

Wartime deception

This pastoral idyll was rudely disturbed during World War II, when the War Department established an anti-aircraft battery on the site. The marshes were also used as a decoy to draw enemy bombers away from Portsmouth after a heavy raid in January 1941. Fires were lit in specially constructed bunkers, tricking the German pilots into bombing the still waters of Langstone Harbour instead of the blacked-out city centre. Look out for a couple of wartime brick structures as you walk around the harbour wall, as well as some small, round ponds formed in old bomb craters further inland. Another wartime casualty was the oyster watchman’s house, built in 1819 on the tiny island that you’ll see just across the water as the harbour wall turns north. The house, which belonged to a Matthew Russell, has never been rebuilt, but Russell’s Lake still runs south from the island he once called home.

Leave the car park through the kissing gate beside the Wildlife Trust’s notice boards and walk down the slope to the information board. Turn right through a kissing gate and onto the harbour wall. The winding coastal path offers exceptional views across Langstone Harbour and turns hard left after almost 1 mile (1.6km).

The scenery changes as you head north, with views to the red-brick Victorian forts along the top of Portsdown Hill. Continue walking past a viewing area and an information panel, followed by an old wartime bunker, then keep an eye out for the low bulk of North Binness Island drawing closer on your right.

Turn left, off the harbour wall just after two gateposts, missing the gate and dropping down to pass through a similar pair of gateposts a few paces further on. Follow the gravel track and after 275yds (251m) turn left at the junction and pass the Wildlife Trust’s whitewashed storage building. Continue walking to reach a kissing gate some 100yds (91m) further on.

Turn left through the gate and follow the waymarked grassy path (via short white posts on the left of the path) into the heart of the reserve, with reedbeds and an open wetland area on your left. Cross the plank bridge and continue ahead for 200yds (183m), keeping a sizeable lake to your left.

Continue on the marked path along a fence on the left to a gate. Pass through a kissing gate and climb the bank, turn right and at a fork in the path bear right, away from the harbour wall and through a kissing gate and rejoin the outward route at the information board just before the car park.