Credit: Studland Dunes by Neil Davidson 30th Aug 2020
About the
National Nature Reserve
The Purbeck Heaths National Nature Reserve, declared in 2020, is the beating heart of a healthy resilient landscape, with abundant wildlife brimming over and enriching Wild Purbeck.
Bringing together three pre-existing, much smaller areas of national nature reserve, along with the surrounding landscape has now made a bigger, better and more joined up area for the animals, plants and their habitats to thrive.
Watch the Purbeck Heaths video
TENURE MAP
The Purbeck Heaths national nature reserve spans 3,331 hectares across Studland, Corfe Castle, Arne, Church Knowle, and Steeple with Tyneham in the County of Dorset.
This land is owned by seven different landowners; The National Trust, RSPB, Rempstone Estate, Dorset Wildlife Trust, Amphibian & Reptile Conservation Trust (ARC), Forestry England and Natural England and is located within the Dorset Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
View the Tenure Map
Habitats & Species
The Purbeck Heath landscape is a complex mixture of habitats including the UK’s largest and best quality low lying wet and dry heathland.
There are also valley mires (swampy, boggy grounds), acid grasslands (nutrient-poor grassy areas and bare ground), coastal sand dunes at Studland Bay and saltmarsh along the inside of Poole Harbour along with Britain’s largest lowland oligotrophic (low nutrient) lake, Little Sea at Studland.
Find out more
Credit: 02-Heath-Tiger-Beetle-Cicindela-sylvatica-Alex-Hyde-1024-300×200
Discover more
Click through the following to find out more about how this amazing landscape is being managed for the benefit of nature and wildlife
Purbeck Wild Grazing Project
A huge area with no internal fences for introduced animals to graze the land as a single, wilded, grazing landscape.
Story of Purbeck Heaths
A tale of how our impact over thousands of years has shaped the landscape we see today
Nature conservation
Improving the sand dunes, introducing beavers (yes you read that correctly!) and more…
Purbeck Heaths Promise
Join us in keeping this landscape spectacular and helping to improve it even further
