Wye NNR and Hothfield Heathlands SSSI, Kent

This is a repeat of the Field Meeting offered in 2024 which had to be cancelled due to bad weather and hence a slippery chalk slope. Heather has now realised that there is a path that would avoid the slippery route if necessary.

Meet at 10:30 at the Wye NNR car park, TN25 5HE. Access to Wye is via minor roads from the A28. The reserve’s eastern boundary is marked by a minor road from Wye to the village of Hastingleigh. There are two car parks available. Go to the one next to the Reserve on the right-hand side.

Wye NNR is one of the finest examples of chalk grassland in Kent, and is home to 21 species of orchid. We should see chalk flora such as Musk Thistle Carduus nutans, Horseshoe Vetch Hippocrepis comosa, Fairy Flax Linum catharticum, Deadly Nightshade Atropa belladonna, Common Milkwort Polygala vulgaris, and orchid species including Man Orchid Orchis anthropophora, Bee Orchid Ophrys apifera and Chalk Fragrant-orchid Gymnadenia conopsea. There are public toilets in Wye.

In the afternoon we will visit Hothfield Heathlands, Grid. Ref: TQ972459; what3words: ///armrests.hike.stumble. This area is Kent’s only remaining bog, where, for a contrast, we may see Lousewort Pedicularis sylvatica, Common Cotton-grass Eriophorum angustifolium, Round-leaved Sundew Drosera rotundifolia, and orchid species Southern Marsh Dactylorhiza praetermissa, Common D. fuchsii and Heath D. maculata Spotted-orchids.

To book, contact Janet John wfs.meetings@gmail.com