Castor Hanglands is an biological Site of Special Scientific Interest west of

Peterborough Peterborough () is a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, east of England. It is the largest part of the City of Peterborough unitary authority district (which covers a larger area than Peterborough itself). It was part of Northamptonshire until ...

Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a county in the East of England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to the ...

. The site is also a National Nature Reserve, and it 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 I for its woodlands and Grade 2 for its grassland. It is

common land Common land is land owned by a person or collectively by a number of persons, over which other persons have certain common rights, such as to allow their livestock to graze upon it, to collect wood, or to cut turf for fuel. A person who has a ...

managed by

Natural England Natural England is a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. It is responsible for ensuring that England's natural environment, including its land, flora and fauna, ...

. The location features ancient ash and maple woodland, unimproved grassland and scrub, and is further described by

as valuable for invertebrates, including some nationally uncommon species. Among the rare plants found here are crested cow-wheat, lesser water-plantain, man orchid and narrow-leaved water dropwort. Woodland butterflies present include silver-washed fritillary, purple hairstreak and white admiral. There are also ponds and ditches which have a variety of aquatic fauna including the

Great Crested Newt The northern crested newt, great crested newt or warty newt (''Triturus cristatus'') is a newt species native to Great Britain, northern and central continental Europe and parts of Western Siberia. It is a large newt, with females growing up to ...

. There is access by going south along Heath Road from

Helpston Helpston (also, formerly, "Helpstone") is an England, English village formerly in the Soke of Peterborough, geographically in Northamptonshire, subsequently (1965–1974) in Huntingdon and Peterborough, then in Cambridgeshire, and administered b ...

, going straight on at the crossroads and then along a track westward to the reserve.

References

{{SSSIs Cambridgeshire Geography of Peterborough National nature reserves in England Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Cambridgeshire Nature Conservation Review sites