Sandlings Heaths & Forest Nature Reserve

Suffolk Wildlife Trust

Nightjar: Adobestock

Upper Hollesley Common

Upper Hollesley Common

Exmoor pony by Steve Aylward

Exmoor pony by Steve Aylward

Suffolk Wildlife Trust

Silver studded blue butterfly

Hebridean sheep by Steve Aylward

Hebridean sheep by Steve Aylward

Sandlings Heaths & Forest Nature Reserve

Just 100 years ago, the Sandlings Heaths were a vast unbroken heathland landscape which stretched almost the length of the Suffolk coast, but today they are fragmented with only a handful of large heathland areas remaining.

Location

Tangham Forest
Woodbridge
IP12 3NF
A static map of Sandlings Heaths & Forest Nature Reserve

Know before you go

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Parking information

Forestry England parking charges apply.
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Grazing animals

Seasonal pony grazing.

Please refer to the links in walking trails below for more information.
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Access

Please visit Forestry England website for details.

No drone flying without express permission.
(Permission will only be granted in exceptional circumstances)

Find out why we ask you to keep your dog on a short lead at most of our reserves and why this is important for wildlife conservation. Why we ask dogs are kept on a lead

Dogs

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Facilities

Toilets
Picnic area
Accessible toilet
Baby changing facilities

When to visit

Opening times

Open all year round

Best time to visit

Spring or summer for birds and butterflies

About the reserve

The light sandy soils of the Sandlings have always been economically marginal. Historically valued for rabbit warrening and sheep walks, there have frequently been times when the land was abandoned and allowed to revert to heath after periods of cultivation. At the start of the 20th century, heathland was once again considered to be of little value, triggering landscape-scale change. In little more than two generations, afforestation, airfield construction and modern intensive cultivation have each played their part in destroying and fragmenting a landscape that human activity had shaped over thousands of years.

Looking across the larger heaths today such as those around Sutton & Hollesley, it is possible to gain a sense of just what the Sandlings landscape must have looked like in the past. The trees and scrub that had invaded the heath in recent decades have been cleared to create once more the open landscape so favoured by woodlarks and Dartford warblers. The late-summer spectacle of flowering heathers is as impressive as ever and colonies of silver-studded blue butterflies have since spread back into the restored heathland.

The Trust has driven the restoration of the Sandlings Heaths since the 1980s, pioneering the reintroduction of sheep grazing to manage them. Looking to the future, a new partnership with the Forestry Commission ensures that heathland areas within the forests are maintained linking part of Rendlesham Forest with Upper Hollesley Common. In time this will soften the edge of the forest and create new habitat for nightjars. It is another important step in bringing back a lost landscape. Habitat restoration on the scale of that of the Sandlings takes time, but brings with it great wildlife successes.

Contact us

Suffolk Wildlife Trust
Contact number: 01473 890089

Location map