Totternhoe

Totternhoe Knolls view credit. Henry Stanier
Totternhoe little hills credit. Graham Bellamy

Totternhoe - Graham Bellamy

Poppies in arable beside Totternhoe credit. Graham Bellamy
The result of medieval quarrying with an array of chalk-loving wildflowers

Location

Castle Hill Road
Totternhoe
Bedfordshire
LU6 1QF
Dunstable
A static map of Totternhoe

Know before you go

Size
31 hectares
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Entry fee

No

Grazing animals

Yes

Walking trails

Tracks may be muddy in winter. Steep slopes can be slippy in wet weather.

Access

Yes

Dogs

On a lead

When to visit

Opening times

Open at all times

Best time to visit

April to September

About the reserve

Totternhoe stone is a strong, durable chalk, long used for buildings including Westminster Abbey. At Totternhoe reserve, spoil heaps left from long-ago quarrying have developed into impressive flower-rich chalk grasslands. Small-scale quarrying continues today to provide stone for historic buildings. The site is crossed by green lanes, which are old drove roads along which livestock would have been taken to and from Dunstable. 

At the Knolls, a motte and bailey castle lies just outside the area managed by the Trust, although the steep slopes of the ramparts form an impressive approach to the site. At the nearby old quarry workings, steep gullies create valleys along which stone would once have been brought from the quarries and from mines deep beneath adjacent fields. 

The chalk grassland is grazed – as it has been for centuries – producing a short turf that is low in nutrients, which has allowed the site to develop an impressive range of wildflowers. In spring, the grasslands show early signs of colour with cowslips and violets. In summer there is a wealth of orchids, from common spotted, man, fragrant and pyramidal, to frog orchid and the common twayblade.

Large anthills on the open grassland are home to the yellow meadow ant; green woodpeckers visit to feed on the insects and larvae. Cowslips are the food plant of the caterpillars of the scarce Duke of Burgundy, which prefers to lay its eggs on those leaves growing in the dappled shade of light scrub. Totternhoe is also the best place in the county to see the small blue butterfly. In the early evening hundreds can be found in the quarry edges.   

Additional information

  • 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.

Contact us

Contact number: 01234 364213

Environmental designation

Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI)

Location map

Betony at Upwood Meadows June  - c. Robert Enderby

Betony at Upwood Meadows June  - c. Robert Enderby

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