Visit

Visit the reserve

OS map of Charlcombe Community Nature Reserve

The main access point for the reserve is via the kissing gate on Charlcombe Way. For more information on accessing the reserve please drop us an email.

There is a bus stop (the number 6 service from the centre of Bath) on Solsbury Way, which is a three minute walk to the reserve. You can park bikes at the entrance to the reserve and they can be locked to the railings.

Please note that there is no parking on Charlcombe Way and if visiting the Reserve by car, visitors will need to park on Solsbury Way.

You can also access the reserve via the fields (known as Charlcombe Meadows) at the end of Coxley Drive in Larkhall.

If visiting the reserve with a dog, please keep to the footpaths, and between March and September, please keep dogs on a lead, as this is the ground nesting bird session. Please also pick up after your dog - there is a bin next to the bus stop, which is a three minute walk.

Species recorded in the reserve

As nature-loving volunteers, we're passionate about find out more about the flora and fauna in the reserve. In our first couple of years in the reserve, we want to find out as much as possible about its wildlife through a combination of citizen science and ecological surveys.

We're thrilled to have spotted more than 350 different species around the reserve, including our top five most common visitors: the Speckled Wood butterfly, the Song Thrush, the Great Spotted Woodpecker, the Marbled White butterfly and the Great Tit. There is also a wide range of wildflowers that can be spotted around the reserve including cowslips, English bluebells and four varieties of fern. In the autumn fungi can be found in the grassland, including the blackening waxcaps, and all around the woodland area.

We're also tracking amphibians and reptiles visiting the site, checking up on local bat populations and looking after our bees.

We'd love you to share your sightings on our FB page, instagram or help us track them using the free app, iNaturalist. Search for ‘Charlcombe Community Nature Reserve’ under ‘Projects’, and it will add your record to the reserve.

Here are some of our recent sightings:

Long-tailed tit

Also known as 'flying teaspoons or lollipops' due to their fluffy round bodies, long tails and undulating flight.

Comma butterfly

Named after the fun, comma-shaped white spots on the underside of their wings.

Common frog

With a distinctive dark mask behind the eyes, these frogs vary in colour from green to brown (and even red or yellow!).

Cowslips

The delicate cousin of the primrose, these beauties are now sadly in serious decline due to habitat loss.

English bluebells

Half the world's bluebells are in the UK; once used as glue for arrows and bookbinding — the Elizabethans even used them to starch their fancy ruffs!

Wood anemones

This ancient woodland plant, with its distinctive star petals and musky scent, is also poisonous to humans.

Page updated

Google Sites

Report abuse