A stone’s throw from London, Box Hill has been a coveted place of great natural beauty for centuries of city dwellers.
A lot of breath has been spent, and ink spilled, describing the splendour of ‘the strongest and most simple of our southern hills’ over the years. Jane Austen's heroine Emma in the 1816 novel of the same name visited Box Hill to discover what ‘…everybody found so much worth seeing’.
Box Hill’s great beauty is matched by its richness of wildlife. As our Head Warden describes, it is ‘an island of diversity, in a countryside where the variety of habitats is rapidly declining'.
What to look for at Box Hill
Box Hill is one of the best-known summits of the North Downs, a prominent 193m (634ft) in height. It is a place to walk, cycle, picnic, enjoy the open air and watch an abundance of wildlife.
Box trees
Box has grown luxuriantly at Box Hill since at least the 1500s. Prized for its close grain, box timber is so hard that it can be carved precisely, making it an ideal wood for engraving blocks. Box is known for its distinct smell, not unlike cats’ urine.
It also supports the rare Box Hill bug, which until recently had only ever been found on Box Hill.
On the escarpment, known as ‘The Whites’, grows ancient box woodland, 40 per cent of all the naturally occurring box in the UK.
Chalk downland
The North Downs is a great chalk ridge, and plants flourish in the chalk soils on the escarpment and the sides of the valleys at Box Hill. Over a dozen species of orchids have been recorded on Box Hill’s downland, along with at least 400 species of other flowering plants. Box Hill has long been an entomologist's delight, with numerous insects to watch out for. However, butterflies are the real show-stoppers in the downland at Box Hill, providing a habitat for 40 of the 58 British species.
Look out for:
- rock rose (Helianthemum nummularium) flowering from May to September
- clustered bellflower (Latin) flowering from July to September
- dwarf thistle (Cirsium acaule) flowering from June to September
- orchids, including bee orchids (Ophrys apifera) and man orchids (Aceras anthropophorum), flowering from May to July
© National Trust / Matthew Oates
- ploughman's spikenard (Inula conyza) flowering from June to September
- viper's bugloss (Echium vulgare) flowering from June to October
- wild basil (Clinopodium vulgare) flowering from July to September
- butterflies including the common blue, the Essex skipper, the marbled white and the adonis blue
- ant hills of yellow meadow ants
- beetles including the soldier beetle, the bloody-nosed beetle and the cardinal beetle
- wingless glow-worms shining in the grass on summer nights
The River Mole
A curiosity of the river that winds below the escarpment at Box Hill is its swallow holes: cracks that pepper the riverbed (they only occur in limestone rock). The river leaks water throughout the year, slowing the flow of the water.
The river offers the chance to spot some rather exotic birds.
Look out for:
- kingfishers
- grey wagtails
© Steve Robinson
- moorhens
- mandarin ducks
- ring-necked parakeets, which have become established near the river
© NTPL / Andrew Butler
Woodland
Beech and oak woods grow with ash, birch and wild cherry on the top of Box Hill. On the hill flanks grow some of the finest hanging yew woodlands in Britain. The woodland supports many nationally rare species of deadwood insects.
Look out for:
- insects including the stag beetle, cardinal beetle, orange ladybird and silver-washed fritillary butterfly
- bluebells (Hyacinthoides non-scripta) flowering from April to early May
- primroses (Primula vulgaris) flowering in spring
- dog violets (Viola riviniana) and sweet violets (Viola odorata) flowering from April to August
- foxgloves (Digitalis purpurea) flowering from May to August
© Dylan Lumborg
- badger sets
- birds including blackcaps, chiffchaffs, goldcrests, great spotted woodpeckers, nuthatches, sparrowhawks and treecreepers
© National Trust
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