Image credit: Deborah Roberts Photography
Join Philip Rush for a poetry walk with the skylarks at Juniper Hill on Friday 25th April at 10am.
Park at Bull’s Cross for a 10am start. B4070 at the junction with Yokehouse Lane. what3words ///diplomats.clinked.ridge
The walk is about three miles long of easy fairly level walking. Please allow 2 hours.
Juniper Hill and Frith Wood are both Sites of Special Scientific Interest. At the top of Juniper Hill, between these two SSSIs, lies a 20-acre piece of limestone grassland for which the Cotswolds Commons and Beechwoods AONB is famous. This particular wildflower meadow is rich in flora - a product of the geology together with many years of low intensity grazing. It provides an ecological transition to Juniper Hill, a rich unimproved limestone grassland, to the woodlands immediately bordering it, and a link to Bull’s Cross, Painswick Beacon, Rudge Hill and Swifts Hill, all special wildlife-rich grasslands. It is also a vital wildlife corridor between the two SSSIs.
Only 1.5% of the Cotswold wildflower meadows remain, and are a priority for conservation, as most ecosystems of this type have now been lost; they are valuable carbon stores, are scarce, and can only be maintained by carefully controlled grazing.
Juniper Hill Field is rich in wildflowers, including five species of orchid, together with many species of pollinating insects and a breeding population of skylarks. Representatives of public bodies and wildlife organisations with knowledge of this site consider it to be an extremely valuable and environmentally sensitive area.
Juniper Hill Field was the subject of a successful local campaign and has recently been acquired by Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust with an anonymous donation. The field offers stunning views over the Painswick valley. The walk will also take in the magnificent beech trees and bluebells of Frith Wood, also a nature reserve.
