Ham Wall
Ham Wall is one of the most celebrated wetland nature reserves in England, managed by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB). Located on the Somerset Levels near Glastonbury, it sits within a vast low-lying floodplain that was once ancient peatland and, before that, part of a much larger freshwater lake system that dominated this part of Somerset in prehistoric times. The reserve covers around 200 hectares and has been transformed from worked-out peat diggings into a mosaic of open reedbeds, shallow lagoons, willow scrub and wet grassland that now ranks among the finest places in the British Isles to observe wildlife. It is particularly renowned as a roosting and breeding site for bitterns, great white egrets and Eurasian cranes, species whose presence at Ham Wall represents some of the most significant conservation success stories in recent British natural history.
The history of the land is layered and fascinating. For centuries the Somerset Levels were worked for peat — a process that dramatically altered the hydrology and ecology of the region. When large-scale commercial peat extraction declined in the late twentieth century, organisations such as the RSPB began acquiring and restoring the exhausted workings. Ham Wall itself was established as a nature reserve in 1994, and the transformation has been remarkable. The shallow scrapes and borrow pits left by peat machinery were flooded and seeded with common reed (Phragmites australis), which has grown into vast swaying beds that today rival some of the finest reedbeds anywhere in Europe. The Somerset Levels as a whole carry deep historical resonance — the nearby town of Glastonbury has legendary associations with Arthurian myth, and the ancient lake villages of Glastonbury and Meare, whose inhabitants lived on the marshes around two thousand years ago, are among the most important Iron Age archaeological sites in Britain.
The physical experience of Ham Wall is genuinely immersive and unlike most other nature reserves. Walking the main track — a wide, flat, surfaced path following the line of an old rhyne (the local name for drainage ditches) — you are enclosed on both sides by walls of tall, rustling reedbed that can reach three to four metres in height. The air carries a permanent marshy freshness, occasionally overlaid with the green, slightly salty scent of wet vegetation. On calm mornings the reserve is extraordinarily quiet apart from the sounds of nature: the mechanical boom of a bittern carrying hundreds of metres across the reeds, the explosive chatter of reed warblers, the splash of a water vole entering a rhyne, or the mewing calls of red kites circling overhead. On winter evenings the famous starling murmurations — enormous flocks of hundreds of thousands of birds performing their liquid aerial choreography before descending to roost in the reeds — are a spectacle that draws visitors from across the country and beyond.
The surrounding landscape of the Somerset Levels is flat, open and hauntingly beautiful in its own austere way. Ham Wall sits at the heart of a cluster of RSPB and Natural England reserves including Shapwick Heath and Westhay Moor, collectively forming the Somerset Levels and Moors Ramsar site — a wetland of international importance. The low ridge of the Polden Hills rises to the south, and to the north the distinctive rounded profile of Glastonbury Tor, crowned by its medieval tower, is often visible from the reserve's higher viewing mounds. The small town of Glastonbury itself is only a few kilometres to the northeast, while Street and Bridgwater are also within easy reach. The landscape in winter floods regularly, and the combination of water, mist and the surreal flatness can make the area feel genuinely otherworldly, which perhaps explains its deep connections to legend and spirituality.
Ham Wall is exceptionally well set up for visitors. The RSPB maintains a car park off Ashcott Road near the village of Meare, with a well-maintained accessible trail that is largely flat and suitable for wheelchairs and pushchairs. Several wooden viewing screens and three raised viewing mounds are positioned along the route, offering panoramic views over the lagoons and reedbeds. There are no admission charges for RSPB members and the reserve is free to enter for all visitors. It is open year-round, and each season offers its own rewards: spring brings breeding bitterns and an explosion of warblers; summer sees the reserve at its lushest and crane families with chicks; autumn and winter are prime time for waterfowl, marsh harriers and the iconic starling murmurations. The murmurations typically begin gathering from October onwards and peak through November to January, usually occurring around dusk. Visitors should arrive at least an hour before sunset and be prepared for cold, potentially muddy conditions. The reserve is best reached by car, but the nearby Shapwick railway station on the Taunton–Bristol line is within cycling distance.
One of the most remarkable stories surrounding Ham Wall is the return of the great bittern as a breeding species. This secretive, reed-haunting bird had become extinct as a British breeding bird in the nineteenth century due to drainage and hunting, and only returned to breed in England in the twentieth century in tiny numbers. Ham Wall is now one of the most reliable places in Europe to both hear and see bitterns, and in some years the reserve hosts a double-digit proportion of the entire British breeding population. The Eurasian crane, too, had been absent from the Somerset Levels for centuries before being reintroduced through the Great Crane Project from 2010 onwards; birds from that project and their wild-bred descendants can now be seen at Ham Wall with some regularity. The reserve has also become a key site for the great white egret, a species that was itself a rarity in Britain not many decades ago and now breeds in the reedbeds. Taken together, these recoveries represent a powerful argument for habitat restoration and make Ham Wall one of the most hopeful places in the British landscape.