The Stonehill Down Nature Reserve is a

downland Downland, chalkland, chalk downs or just downs are areas of open chalk hills, such as the North Downs. This term is used to describe the characteristic landscape in southern England where chalk is exposed at the surface. The name "downs" is deriv ...

nature reserve A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, or features of geological or ...

on the

Purbeck Hills The Purbeck Hills, also called the Purbeck Ridge or simply the Purbecks, are a ridge of chalk downs in Dorset, England. It is formed by the structure known as the Purbeck Monocline. The ridge extends from Lulworth Cove in the west to Old H ...

in the county of

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset. Covering an area of ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

. It is managed by the

Dorset Wildlife Trust Dorset Wildlife Trust (DWT) is a wildlife trust covering the county of Dorset, United Kingdom. The trust was founded in 1961 as Dorset Naturalists' Trust, to protect and conserve the wildlife and natural habitats of the county. DWT is one of 4 ...

.''Stonehill Down Nature Reserve''
at www.natureofdorset.co.uk. Retrieved 8 Jun 2013 Stonehill Down covers an area of 20 hectares''Stonehill Down Reserve''
at www.dorsetwildlifetrust.org.uk. Retrieved 8 Jun 2013 and lies high on the chalk ridge running west/east across the

Isle of Purbeck The Isle of Purbeck is a peninsula in Dorset, England. It is bordered by water on three sides: the English Channel to the south and east, where steep cliffs fall to the sea; and by the marshy lands of the River Frome and Poole Harbour to the ...

with far-reaching views across the

Wareham Forest Wareham Forest is an area of countryside in Dorset, England, consisting of open heathland, including Decoy Heath and Gore Heath, and plantations of conifers such as Morden Heath and Bloxworth Heath. The site is managed by Forestry England for c ...

, with

Poole Harbour Poole Harbour is a large natural harbour in Dorset, southern England, with the town of Poole on its shores. The harbour is a drowned valley ( ria) formed at the end of the last ice age and is the estuary of several rivers, the largest being th ...

to the east.''Stonehill Down''
at www.wildlifetrusts.org. Retrieved 8 Jun 2013 It is bounded by the line of the Purbeck Hills to the south, with the summit of

Ridgeway Hill Ridgeway Hill, also referred to as Grange Hill or Steeple Hill, is the third highest point of the Purbeck Hills in the county of Dorset standing at , is one of the only hills with a prominence of over a hundred metres, HuMPs, in the county. Near ...

about 1 kilometre to the west-southwest, and

Corfe Castle Corfe Castle is a fortification standing above the village of the same name on the Isle of Purbeck peninsula in the English county of Dorset. Built by William the Conqueror, the castle dates to the 11th century and commands a gap in the ...

about 3 kilometres to the west.

Ordnance Survey Ordnance Survey (OS) is the national mapping agency for Great Britain. The agency's name indicates its original military purpose (see ordnance and surveying), which was to map Scotland in the wake of the Jacobite rising of 1745. There was ...

1:50,000 ''Landranger'' map series

Flora and fauna

The reserve contains two distinct habitats:

broadleaf woodland A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...

and

chalk downland Downland, chalkland, chalk downs or just downs are areas of open chalk hills, such as the North Downs. This term is used to describe the characteristic landscape in southern England where chalk is exposed at the surface. The name "downs" is deriv ...

. The broadleaf, coppiced woodland lies on the northern slopes of the Purbeck Ridge, which is steep in places, where

primrose Primrose may refer to: Botany * Primulaceae, a family of flowering plants * ''Primula vulgaris'', commonly known as the primrose (also called the common primrose or English primrose) * ''Oenothera'', commonly known as evening primrose, a plant gen ...

s and

ramson ''Allium ursinum'', known as wild garlic, ramsons, cowleekes, cows's leek, cowleek, buckrams, broad-leaved garlic, wood garlic, bear leek, Eurasian wild garlic or bear's garlic, is a bulbous perennial flowering plant in the amaryllis family Ama ...

s thrive and

toothwort Toothwort is a common name for several plants and may refer to: *''Cardamine'', a genus of plants in the mustard family, Brassicaceae *''Lathraea'', a genus of parasitic plants in the family Orobanchaceae Orobanchaceae, the broomrapes, is a fam ...

grows around the base of

hazel The hazel (''Corylus'') is a genus of deciduous trees and large shrubs native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere. The genus is usually placed in the birch family Betulaceae,Germplasmgobills Information Network''Corylus''Rushforth, K. (1999 ...

trees in spring. The ridge itself is primarily chalk

, comprising rough pasture with some scrub. Here, there are numerous downland flowers including

Horseshoe vetch ''Hippocrepis comosa'', the horseshoe vetch, is a species of perennial flowering plant belonging to the genus ''Hippocrepis'' in the family Fabaceae. Description The overall appearance depends on its habitat: sometimes it forms upright clumps ...

and

Carline thistle ''Carlina vulgaris'', the carline thistle, is a plant species of the genus ''Carlina''. It is a biennial that grows on limestone, chalky or other alkaline grasslands or dunes. The flowers are clusters of very small brown florets surrounded by bro ...

. In early summer, Common spotted, Early purple and

Bee orchid Bee orchid is a common name for several orchids and may refer to: *''Cottonia peduncularis'', a species of orchid from India and Sri Lanka *''Diuris carinata'', a species of orchid from the south-west of Western Australia *'' Ida barringtoniae'', a ...

may be seen, whilst in late summer and early autumn,

Autumn Lady's-tresses ''Spiranthes spiralis'', commonly known as autumn lady's-tresses, is an orchid that grows in Europe and adjacent North Africa and Asia. It is a small grey-green plant. It forms a rosette of four to five pointed, sessile, ovate leaves about in le ...

Autumn gentian ''Gentianella amarella'', the autumn gentian, autumn dwarf gentian, or autumn felwort, is a short biennial plant flowering plant in the gentian family, Gentianaceae. It is found throughout Northern Europe, the western and northern United States, ...

(or

Felwort ''Swertia perennis'' is a species of flowering plant in the gentian family known by the common names felwort and star swertia. It is native to several regions of the northern hemisphere, including much of Eurasia and western North America. It is ...

) and

Nettle-leaved bellflower ''Campanula trachelium'', the nettle-leaved bellflower, is a species In biology, a species is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often de ...

are in bloom. This area is also heavily grazed. Butterflies of note include the

Lulworth skipper The Lulworth skipper (''Thymelicus acteon'') is a butterfly of the family Hesperiidae. Its name is derived from Lulworth Cove in the county of Dorset, England, where the first specimens in Great Britain were collected in 1832 by English nat ...

and

Adonis blue The Adonis blue (''Lysandra bellargus'', also known as ''Polyommatus bellargus'') is a butterfly in the family Lycaenidae. It inhabits the Palearctic realm (Western Europe, Central Europe, Southern Europe, Southern Russia, Iraq, Iran, Caucasus, T ...

Access

There are no visitor facilities and the nearest places to park area are either in

East Creech East Creech is a hamlet in the parish of Church Knowle in the county of Dorset, England. East Creech lies at the northern foot of the Purbeck Hills about 3 kilometres west of Corfe Castle. It is located at Ordnance Survey grid reference .Ordna ...

just north of the reserve, or on the minor road to

Creech Grange Creech Grange is a country house in Steeple, south of Wareham in Dorset at the foot of the Purbeck Hills. Historic England designate it as a Grade I listed building. The park and gardens are Grade II* listed in the National Register of Hist ...

at the top of the col to

Creech Barrow Hill Creech Barrow Hill is a steep, conical hill, Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 ''Landranger'' series, no. 195. (one source 637 feet) high, near the coast of Dorset, England, and the highest point of the Dorset Heaths. It has been described as "one of Do ...

. Several paths criss-cross the reserve or run along its boundaries and walkers can access the reserve from the ridgeway between

and

References

{{Reflist Nature reserves in Dorset Dorset Wildlife Trust reserves