“Britain’s islands are among the most geologically varied in the world”, and our National Nature Reserves play a “crucial role” in preserving this “remarkable biodiversity”, said Richard Madden in The Telegraph.
There are currently 390s NNRs in the UK and King Charles has an initiative to establish 25 new ones in England by 2027. Here are some of the best of them, including one that’s just weeks old.
Seven Sisters National Nature Reserve, East Sussex, England
Seven Sisters has “long been a day-trip favourite” from London, but was only officially declared a National Nature Reserve in March, said Anna Mahtani in Time Out. With “stunning white chalk cliffs and waving green hills”, the reserve spans around 1,500 hectares.
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In its landscape of chalk grasslands and “thriving wildlife”, bird lovers can catch glimpses of skylarks and yellowhammers “flitting between the skyline”, while “those with a keen eye might catch a chalkhill blue butterfly”. Film buffs may recognise the scenery from films such as "Atonement”, “Wicked” and “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire”.
Northumberland National Park, Northumberland, England
The Simonside Hills in this park “come alive” in spring, said Emily Sargent in The Times. It’s a treat for the senses – from the sound of birds overhead to the sight of red squirrels that “scamper after each other” through the pine, larch and spruce trees. These “heather-clad hills” are also home to some of the “northeast’s rarest wildlife”, including the curlew, the red grouse and the mountain bumblebee.
You can see signs here of “our ancient ancestors”: prehistoric cup and ring marks, carved into the rocks, dating from the Neolithic and early Bronze Ages. The park is a “fabulous” starting point for a long hike, with “well-established trails across the hills”, including the 97-mile St Oswald’s Way from Lindisfarne to Heavenfield.
Gilfach Nature Reserve, Rhayader, Wales
Nestled in the Cumbrian mountains, Gilfach Nature Reserve is “spectacular” and “as rich in history as it is in wildlife”, said BBC Countryfile. Walkers can follow the winding path that “threads through oak woodland and over moorland”, which turn “blushing pink with heather” towards the end of summer.
On the riverbanks, keep your eyes peeled for the “gleaming” white throat of the dipper songbirds, “bobbing energetically” before “plunging into the torrent to feed”. The rocks are also “worthy of closer inspection”, teeming with “miniature forests of lichen”. You can climb a wooden platform to get a bird’s-eye view of the wonderful waterfalls, and “if you’re lucky, the acrobatic finale of one of nature’s greatest migrations: Atlantic salmon”.
St Abb’s Head National Nature Reserve, Berwickshire, Scotland
Just north of the border with England, Scotland’s St Abb’s is a great spot for twitchers, said Madden in The Telegraph. Guillemots and razorbills “crowd together on the offshore stacks”, while puffins use crevices in the cliff face to lay their single egg. You can also see “large numbers of kittiwakes, fulmars, shags and herring gulls”, as well as an abundance of pretty wild flowers.
The cliff-top path is a “walker’s paradise”, and beneath the waves below is the “swimmer and scuba diver’s equivalent, with clear waters, kelp forests, soft corals, tunnels, gullies and diverse marine life”. Out at sea, there have been sightings of dolphins, minke whales and seals.
Bradford Pennine Gateway National Nature Reserve, West Yorkshire, England
There is something “stoic and un-showy about this 1,272-hectare region”, said Rob Crossan in Condé Nast Traveller, naming it one of his Seven Wonders of the World for 2026. The reserve has many well-known historical routes, having been lived in – and “beloved by” – the Brontë sisters, and encompassing Ilkley Moor, Penistone Hill Country Park, Harden Moor and Bingley North Bog.
The scenery provides “heathery oblivion”, with “undulating moors, wind-polished gritstone tors and views that collapse into long, moody distances broken only by the slow, stately flap of a marsh harrier”. New trails that connect the picturesque villages of Haworth, Stanbury and Thornton knit together a “tapestry of slow travel”. “If Britain ever needed proof that the everyday could still surprise, the Bradford Pennines Gateway delivers with quiet aplomb.”