About the reserve

This steeply sloping chalk downland close to the village of Aldbourne has no set footpaths so you can wander freely over the grass. Enjoy the uninterrupted views of rolling countryside and, in the summer, the wildflowers. They are abundant because through history the down has escaped being ‘improved’ by fertilisers and pesticides and has been continuously and lightly grazed. May is one of the loveliest times to visit when the blue chalk milkwort is in flower.

We bought the reserve in 1998 partly because it has one of the country’s largest populations of the nationally scarce early gentian - a little annual with a purple trumpet that flowers in May and June and is unique to Britain. Orchids that flower here are fragrant, common spotted and pyramidal. In some years you can find green winged and frog orchids, and at the end of summer a few spikes of autumn ladies-tresses. See if you can spot butterflies such as the nationally scarce Duke of Burgundy, brown argus and a clutch of blues – the Adonis, common, chalkhill and small.

Across the top of the ridge is a dense cluster of hawthorn that provides habitat for birds including corn buntings. Above your head you may hear the ascending notes of the skylark. We graze the slope with cattle between April and October to keep the grass under control.