Hackhurst and White Downs is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest west of Dorking in Surrey. White Downs is a

Nature Conservation Review ''A Nature Conservation Review'' is a two-volume work by Derek Ratcliffe, published by Cambridge University Press in 1977. It set out to identify the most important places for nature conservation in Great Britain. It is often known by the initial ...

site, Grade 2, and part of it is in the White Downs nature reserve, which is owned by the Wotton Estate and managed by the Surrey Wildlife Trust (SWT). Hackhurst Downs is a Local Nature Reserve, which part of the Hackhurst Downs nature reserve, which is owned by

Surrey County Council Surrey County Council is the county council administering certain services in the non-metropolitan county of Surrey in England. The council is composed of 81 elected councillors, and in all but one election since 1965 the Conservative Party has ...

and also managed by the SWT. This steeply sloping land is a shared escarpment with

Ranmore Common Ranmore Common, also known as Ranmore Commons, is an area of wooded former common land on the North Downs, immediately northwest of Dorking in the English county of Surrey. Its civil parish is Wotton, a geographically large village with a sma ...

, amounting to an almost whole section of the

North Downs The North Downs are a ridge of chalk hills in south east England that stretch from Farnham in Surrey to the White Cliffs of Dover in Kent. Much of the North Downs comprises two Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs): the Surrey Hills a ...

, which has grassland, secondary woodland and scrub. It has a rich invertebrate fauna with forty species of butterfly, including adonis blue,

chalkhill blue The chalkhill blue (''Lysandra coridon'') is a butterfly in the family Lycaenidae. It is a small butterfly that can be found throughout the Palearctic realm, where it occurs primarily in grasslands rich in chalk. Males have a pale blue colour, wh ...

brown hairstreak The brown hairstreak (''Thecla betulae'') is a butterfly in the family Lycaenidae. The range includes most of the Palaearctic. Description The following description of this butterfly was written by Adalbert Seitz in 1909: ''Z. betulae'' L. B ...

, Duke of Burgundy fritillary, marbled white and silver-spotted skipper.

References

External links

Surrey County Council map of SSSIs
{{Surrey Hills AONB Surrey Wildlife Trust Local Nature Reserves in Surrey Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Surrey Nature Conservation Review sites Hills of Surrey