About the reserve

Pingle Cutting is a former railway cutting whose track (closed since 1967) and slopes have been managed by the Wildlife Trust BCN since 1968 as meadow grassland and woodland. The eastern area of the cutting is next to an ancient woodland and supports woodland specialist plants including bluebells and dog’s mercury and occasional early purple orchids in the spring.

The grassland is best in the summer with ox-eye daisy, salad burnet, wild carrot, hairy violet and a good population of common spotted orchids. Periodically shrubs and trees are removed from the cutting banks to maintain the open grassland. We mow (and hope to graze) the cutting annually in late summer to keep coarse grasses and young scrub in check which allows wild flowers and the insects who depend on them to thrive.

There is a long history of recording wildlife at the Cutting including more than over 50 bird species 300 species of moth. During the summer look for butterflies the day flying six-spot burnet moth.      

Additional information

• Grazing: The reserve will be closed to the public when grazing animals are on site.
• Scroll down to see the reserve boundary. Please note the boundary map is for indication purposes only and does not show the Wildlife Trusts definitive land boundary. 

FOR ANY MEDIA ENQUIRIES PLEASE CONTACT OUR COMMUNICATIONS TEAM:   communicationsteam@wildlifebcn.org or 01954 713500 and ask for comms team.