Nature reserves in EnglandEngland

Ancient deer park, ruins and folly tower.

5 km² · Leicestershire

Wind-carved gritstone tors scattered across a Nidderdale moor.

1.6 km² · North Yorkshire

Folly tower on the Cotswold edge, vast views.

0.15 km² · Worcestershire

Armstrong's wooded estate — the first house lit by hydro.

4.1 km² · Northumberland

Wild shingle spit with lighthouse and pagodas.

Suffolk

Elegant single-span suspension bridge over the estuary.

0.34 km² · East Riding of Yorkshire

Sweeping heather moorland plateau above Church Stretton.

27 km² · Shropshire

Mossy cascades through ancient Bodmin Moor woodland.

0.17 km² · Cornwall

Ancient ridge rising abruptly above the Severn plain.

7.5 km² · Worcestershire

Shingle spit crowded with grey and common seals.

10 km² · Norfolk

Stunted, moss-draped ancient oak woodland.

1.7 km² · Devon

Wooded sandstone escarpment steeped in legend.

0.94 km² · Cheshire

Sweeping chalk viewpoint over the Weald.

2.7 km² · Surrey

Ancient oak forest of the Robin Hood legend.

4.3 km² · Nottinghamshire

Half-collapsed cone, the Cleveland Matterhorn.

0.11 km² · North Yorkshire

A nature park built in the 1990s from chalk dug for the Channel Tunnel.

0.32 km² · Kent

A huge sweep of sand, pinewood and grazing marsh on the north Norfolk coast, backed by Holkham Hall and loud with geese in winter

35 km² · Norfolk

A line of dark rock stacks standing on a wide sandy beach on the north Cornwall coast, with a steep stair down the cliff

0.81 km² · Cornwall

Coastal nature reserve where over two thousand grey seal pups are born each winter within feet of the viewing fence.

Lincolnshire

Grazing marsh on Langstone Harbour, a sea-wall loop.

Hampshire

Restored lowland heath of some 38 hectares between Midhurst and Petworth, managed by Sussex Wildlife Trust, with heather, birch and sandy tracks.

West Sussex

Heathland reserve of gorse, birch and Scots pine, good for redstart and crossbill on the Ashdown fringe.

East Sussex

Chalk grassland local nature reserve on Brighton's eastern edge, home to a rare Neolithic causewayed camp and wide views over the city.

East Sussex

Itchen water-meadows minutes from the cathedral.

Hampshire

A wetland reserve below the wooded slopes near Arundel Castle, with reedbed lagoons, hides and boat trips among the birds.

West Sussex

Sir Peter Scott's pioneering wetland reserve on the Severn, wintering ground for Bewick's swans and thousands of wildfowl.

Gloucestershire

Hundred acres of wetland, wood and meadow on the Wear, home to wild birds, flamingos and otters.

Tyne and Wear

A Repton-landscaped park of 850 acres, home to a deer herd and the Balloon Fiesta.

3 km² · Somerset

A country park in Cambridgeshire.

2 km² · Cambridgeshire

A mill estate whose valley garden drops to the River Bollin past restored glasshouses.

0.84 km² · Cheshire

A chalk hilltop of beech and ash woodland, crossed by the Icknield Way.

0.49 km² · Bedfordshire

A Pennine hamlet of old stone bridges and a ruined hall in a wooded valley on the Brontë Way near Colne

1.5 km² · Lancashire

Three broad waterfalls where the River Ure steps over limestone shelves through wooded Wensleydale in the Yorkshire Dales

0.18 km² · North Yorkshire

Sandstone cliffs and gorse heath split by steep little glens, on the wild edge of Hastings

2.4 km² · East Sussex

A deep, wooded river gorge on the western edge of Dartmoor, with a churning whirlpool at one end and a tall waterfall at the other

0.36 km² · Devon

A jagged granite outcrop in mid-Cornwall with the shell of a medieval hermitage chapel perched right on top

Cornwall

A flooded old clay pit near Wareham whose water shifts between turquoise and green as the light changes, ringed by Purbeck heathland

1.1 km² · Dorset

Britain's biggest gorge, a mile of grey limestone cliffs in the Mendips with famous show caves cut into the rock below

4.5 km² · Somerset

A steep wooded limestone gorge on the Mendips near Wookey Hole, a National Nature Reserve with a scramble through the ravine and ice-age caves

0.62 km² · Somerset

A vast natural amphitheatre gouged into the North York Moors, which legend says a giant scooped out to throw at his wife

1.5 km² · North Yorkshire

A wooded sandstone ridge above Kinver where families once lived in houses cut into the rock, now a National Trust reserve

1.2 km² · Staffordshire

Beachy Head's chalk face, the highest in Britain, with a lighthouse at its foot and downland walking either side

11 km² · East Sussex

River-carved show caves under the Mendips.

0.39 km² · Somerset

Last fragment of ancient undrained fenland.

2.5 km² · Cambridgeshire

A National Nature Reserve in Norfolk.

0.84 km² · Norfolk

A broad tidal bay and nature reserve north of Bamburgh, alive with wading birds and geese at low water.

Northumberland

Nature reserve in a former chalk quarry near Pitstone, with wetland birds, chalk flowers and a lakeside visitor centre.

Buckinghamshire

Craggy volcanic hill and nature reserve above Pontesbury, the county's first-ever nature reserve with steep valley views.

Shropshire