View from Common Hill Nature Reserve (Paul Lloyd)
The Woolhope Dome
The Woolhope Dome is a unique geological area made up of concentric rings of alternate limestones and shales surrounding a central bed of sandstone. This topography has been instrumental in the development of the ecology. The variety of aspects, slopes, soils and the relative lack of agricultural intensification has created a unique combination of important habitats. These habitats range from semi-natural ancient woodland to grasslands rich in wildflowers, traditional orchards to unspoilt streams. The Woolhope Dome is one of the last places in the country where all these habitats can still be found together and it is believed to be home to over half the species found anywhere in the UK.
The landscape covers a total of 5,600 hectares with 2,289 hectares of neutral and calcareous grassland; 1,014 hectares of arable land; 1,582 hectares of woodland (57% of which is broad-leaved semi-natural woodland) and 286 hectares of orchard. Other important habitat types found here include parkland and wood pasture, hedgerows, roadside verges, ponds and streams and commons.
The landscape is home to many important, rare and iconic species.
It is known for many butterflies: pearl bordered fritillary, silver washed fritillary, white letter hairstreak, brown argus, and in particular the wood white butterfly, now extinct in many counties.
Birdlife includes notable species such as hawfinch, lesser spotted woodpecker, marsh tit, pied flycatcher, spotted flycatcher, marsh tit and redstart.
Plant species to spot include flora of calcareous grassland including wild daffodil, greater butterfly orchid, small-leaved lime, southern marsh orchid and the wild service tree.
The Woolhope Dome is also one of the most important areas in Britain for moths with many rare species including barred hooktip, drab looper, lunar hornet clearwing.
Mammals are especially abundant with populations of lesser horseshoe, greater horseshoe, and Bechstein's bat and dormice recorded on many of our nature reserves.
One final notable species is the noble chafer beetle, which relies on decaying wood and is usually found in orchards or wood pasture.
Bigger, Better, and Better Connected
The Trust owns and manages six nature reserves within the Woolhope Dome landscape. Our aim is for our nature reserves to follow the Lawson principles of creating wildlife spaces which are bigger, better, and better connected and hence we are following a strategic acquisitions policy to buy land which can extend and connect our existing nature reserves which maximizes our impact for wildlife.
Following this strategy, we purchased Rounds Meadow, adjacent to Monument Hill within our Common Hill Nature Reserve in 2020 and bought Ail Meadow in 2022. We now have a fantastic opportunity to buy two more sites connected to our existing reserves.
