Yatton Down SSSI, Wiltshire
Various Dates

Yatton Down, looking south towards Long Dean

Yatton Down, looking north towards the Castle Combe racing circuit

 

One of my favourite local patches is the small (14.4 (ha.) 36 (ac.)) and easily acessible Yatton Down Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), which is just a few miles from Chippenham and close to the beautiful village of Castle Combe (famous for - amongst other things - being the village where the original Doctor Dolittle was filmed). Reached by turning off the A420 at a minor road signposted to West Yatton opposite “The Crown Inn”, Yatton Down is thought to be the finest surviving area of limestone downland in Wiltshire.

A valley with steep sides created by erosion by a tributary of the By Brook, Yatton Down is surrounded by trees that ring in summer with the songs of common woodland birds like Chaffinches, Blackcaps, Chiffchaffs and Garden Warblers (though do note that the the Castle Combe Racing Circuit is on the northern valley top, and it can be horribly noisy when the motorbikes are screaming round in their seemingly endless circles). Buzzards breed locally in good numbers, and Yatton Down is regularly overflown by a pair (pairs?) of Northern Ravens (which join the many pairs of Jackdaws to keep the Buzzards in their place).

A shallow stream - which dries out in hot summers - runs through the bottom of the valley through dense thickets of hawthorn, and the surrounding vegetation (which in some years is a carpet of Ground Ivy Glechoma hederacea and Silverweed Potentilla anserina) attracts numerous butterflies (I’ve seen both Green Hairstreak and Grizzled Skipper in spring). Mothing here can be interesting too, and a few weeks ago I had brief views of one of the species of Forester Moth perched for a second or two on a Common Spotted Orchid. The indigenous European Roe Deer, a highly adaptable species found in a wide variety of habitats ranging from open moor to thick cover in conifer or deciduous woodland, are also seen every so often.

Roe Deer Capreolus capreolus

 

The main interest for me though are the downland plants found here, and there are good numbers found on its slopes: there are many Dyer’s Greenweed Genista tinctoria (a locally scarce plant once used for the green dye that can be extracted from it), Common Spotted Dactylorhiza fuchsii and Pyramidal Orchids Anacamptis pyramidalis, Yellow-wort Blackstonia perfoliata, Kidney-vetch Anthyllis vulneraria, Devil’s-bit Scabious Succisa pratensis, and (in spring) swathes of Cowslips Primula veris, a flower who’s name derives from the Old English for a “cowpat” and has many traditions and folklore stories attached to it (have a look at www.englishplants.co.uk/cowslip for some interesting facts).

Of particular note is a large colony of Fragrant Orchid Gymnadenia conopsea which grows mainly on the southern slope, flowering in mid-June when their scent can be picked up on a still summer’s evening from quite a distance. (The English Nature website also mentions both Bee Orchid here - it’s around the area but hard to find - and most intriguingly a colony of the very scarce Musk Orchid Herminium monorchis, which I’ve not yet located…).

I’ll be re-visiting Yatton Down a number of times this summer and will update this page with any interesting sightings I make. If you have additional information I’d be grateful to hear from you - please use the “Comments” button at the bottom of the page.

Directions to Yatton Down:
From the A420 four miles south of Chippenham (heading towards Bath and Bristol), turn onto a minor road signposted to West Yatton directly opposite “The Crown Inn”. Follow this (narrow) road for about a mile until it drops to the right down a sleep slope. At the bottom of the slope there is a sign pointing left towards Long Dean. Just after this turning is a ‘flattened’ embankment under some large trees, and most people park here. Access to the Down is through a gate immediately opposite this ‘parking area’ on the other side of the road.