Winterbourne Downs

Address: RSPB Winterbourne Downs, Station Road, Newton Tony, Salisbury, SP4 0HE.

Grid ref: SU21434015

What3Words: employ.avoiding.upward

This working farm lies in the heart of Wiltshire's rolling chalk country, where former arable fields are being transformed into flower-rich grasslands teeming with wildlife. The reserve is home to the charismatic and rare stone-curlew, and a spring walk may also reveal skylarks, lapwings, yellowhammers, linnets and grey partridges.

Plan your visit

Open at all times, except the summer solstice (20-21 June).

Free entrance to RSPB members: Yes

Adults: Free, but donations are very welcome.

Children: Free, but donations are very welcome.

Facilities

Car park
Picnic area
Guided walks
Viewing point
Nature trails

Accessibility

How to get here

By train

Grateley is the closest station which is 6 miles (9 km) away. You can cycle from here - take the B3084 towards Cholderton and the A338 towards Allington.

By bus

Take the 67 from Salisbury to Tidworth, stopping at Newton Tony. From Amesbury, get the 8 to Tidworth, changing to the 67 to Newton Tony (check with Traveline, tel: 0871 200 22 33). From the Newton Tony bus stop, walk up Station Hill. Take the public path to the reserve car park.

The bus stop you need to get on and off at is near the primary school in Newton Tony.

By bike

The nearest Sustrans route is route 20 on the Wiltshire Cycle Way.

By road

From the A303, follow directions to Newton Tony. Drive through the village and turn right at the Allington sign into Station Hill. Reserve car park on right at brow of hill. From Salisbury, take the A338 north to Allington. Turn right at the Newton Tony sign. Follow the road through Allington and along the single track road towards Newton Tony. The car park is on your left at the top of the hill.

Sat nav POI file: If you have a satellite navigation system that can accept POI files, please see our POI page for a download link and instructions.

Get directions from Google Maps

View on What3Words

RSPB reserves on Google Earth

Downloads

Our trails will take you through some very special habitats, where you will discover nature and farming thriving side by side. PDF, 385Kb.

RSPB Winterbourne Downs trail guide

Contact Winterbourne Downs

RSPB Winterbourne Downs, Station Road, Newton Tony, Salisbury, SP4 0HE.
01980 629835

What will you see?

Our star species

Lapwing

Nesting lapwings here chase predators that may come too close to their nests.

Linnet

At Winterbourne, see if you can spot a pink-breasted male in spring.

Skylark

Skylarks nest on the grassland at Winterbourne Downs.

Yellowhammer

In spring, listen out for the yellowhammer's song.

Stone-curlew

See if you can spot stone-curlew from our viewing screens.

Corn bunting

Listen out for corn buntings singing from field margins.

In spring the reserve is alive with activity. From the nature trail you can listen out for yellowhammers, and whitethroats in the hedgerows while skylarks sing from above. At this time of year, lapwings will be displaying over the fallow plots, and you may even see boxing brown hares! Wander through the meadow and watch small blue butterflies drift amongst the flower heads.

Walk through the chalk grassland reversion in summer and you will encounter a riot of colour as the wild flowers come in to full bloom, with clouds of butterflies including dark green fritillaries and marbled whites. You may be lucky to see the secretive and well camouflaged stone-curlew on the plots in front of the viewing screens. Listen out for the evocative jangling call of corn buntings from the surrounding fence lines. Keep an eye out for the hobby.

In autumn, fieldfares and redwings start arriving from Scandinavia and will be gorging themselves on berries of the native guelder rose and blackthorn bushes in the hedgerows. Other migrants can be seen on passage at this time of year - look out for the flash of white of a passing wheatear or a whinchat darting to and from its perch.

In winter, large flocks of finches and buntings gather to feed on the wild bird seed margins that we have sown for them and groups of lapwing gather on the fallow plots. Look to the skies for the possibility of red kite, buzzard or kestrel over the farm and across the open grassland for groups of roe deer.

About Winterbourne Downs

Habitat

More than 200ha of new chalk grassland has been created on former arable fields - it is interspersed with open cultivated ground to maximise opportunities for farmland wildlife. This includes wild bird seed mixtures providing nectar for bees and other insects in the summer followed by seeds for finches and buntings in the winter; cultivated margins for scarce arable plants and fallow plots to provide nesting sites for birds such as lapwing, stone-curlew, skylark, and grey partridge.

Hedgerows, shelterbelts and scrub offer opportunities for woodland wildlife such as blackcaps, whitethroats, barn owls and the brown hairstreak butterfly. South-facing chalk butterfly banks have been constructed and sown with suitable food plants for iconic chalk grassland butterflies such as the small blue and the brown argus.

Conservation

RSPB’s vision at Winterbourne Downs is to create a landscape scale area of species-rich chalk grassland as a stepping stone between the two largest tracts of semi-natural chalk grassland in the British Isles – Salisbury Plain and Porton Down. This is both to create a safe haven for the stone-curlew in its Wessex stronghold, and to create a strategic wildlife corridor to provide greater resilience against climate change for all nature.

Chalk grasslands are our most biodiverse non-woodland habitats in UK with up to 40 plant species per square metre. It has declined by 80 per cent in the last 60 years. Wiltshire has special responsibility with 50 per cent of UK resource. In possibly the largest project of its kind, a spectacular 200 ha of former arable land has been reverted towards species-rich chalk grassland, giving panoramic views of nodding wildflowers in mid-summer.

Stone-curlews have been a priority farmland bird for recovery. A survey in 1985 showed an 85 per cent population decline and range contraction. The UK population was an estimated 130 pairs. Wessex population was then probably fewer than 30 pairs. RSPB set up a successful recovery project in partnership with farmers and Natural England, and there are now an estimated 130-150 pairs in Wessex and 350-400 nationally.

Site information

Winterbourne Downs is still a working farm, and grazing livestock are essential to the management of the reserve. To complement the chalk grassland a mix of arable habitats is being maintained for the benefit of farmland birds and scarce arable plants.

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