Kingley Vale (6km)

by Jake Opie
1 year ago
Near Funtington, GB

13 views

Kingley Vale was designated one of the country’s first National Nature Reserves in 1952. It is owned by Natural England and the West Dean Estate, who manage the Reserve protecting its special habitats, wildlife
and heritage.

Kingley Vale is known for its twisted and ancient yew trees and includes a grove of veteran trees which are among the oldest living things in Britain. Several are at least 500 years old, with the oldest measuring more than five metres in girth. It also has superb chalk grassland with an
abundance of chalk-loving plants like birds foot trefoil, kidney vetch and fairy flax. You can also find 11 different species of orchid in the Reserve including bee, common spotted, frog and fly orchids.

Look out for red kites and buzzards soaring above you. Breeding birds at Kingley Vale include the nightingale, grasshopper warbler, blackcap, marshtit and green woodpecker. Of the 58 species of butterfly that breed in England, 39 have been recorded at Kingley Vale, including chalkhill blue, holly blue and brimstone.

The Reserve also contains one of the most important concentrations of well-preserved archaeological sites in southern England, including 14 Scheduled Monuments of which the Devil's Humps and Goosehill are the
most prominent.

The Devil’s Humps on the summit of Bow Hill at Kingley Vale Nature Reserve are fine examples of Bronze Age burial mounds, and are amongst the most visited in the southeast. Barrows of this size and prominence in the landscape may have been reserved for people of high status such as chiefs and priests.

The western pair are of a type known as 'bell barrows', where the ditch is separated from the mound by a narrow step, whereas the eastern pair are 'bowl barrows', whose ditches are at the edges of their mounds and take the shape of an upturned bowl. There are a number of other different types of barrows in the vicinity, some hidden in the woods, others reduced by ploughing, all of which indicate the high level of Bronze Age activity in this area.