Hod Hill butterfly walk
An easy walk around half of a hilltop Iron Age hill fort, after either a steep slope ascent or a longer ascent up a gentler slope.
Map
Start:
National Trust car park, grid ref: ST854113
1
From the National Trust car park, bear left up a steep hill and through a bridle gate, keeping close to the wood edge on your right. Look out for speckled woods in late summer.
Nettles
The nettle patches (along the terrace on your left before the gate entrance) often support caterpillars of peacock, red admiral and small tortoiseshell butterflies.
2
Cross the stile onto Hod Hill. Immediately before the main track turns up towards the hill fort entrance, take the grassy track to your right, along the crest of the lower rampart, above the wood edge. Butterflies congregate in the bays cut in the scrub on your right, feeding in high summer on hemp agrimony flowers.
Butterflies
Marsh fritillaries fly along the rampart slope, and in midsummer numerous marbled whites, ringlets and the occasional dark-green fritillary can also be spotted here.
3
At the bottom, turn left along the main rampart ditch bottom, which opens out onto a section of short turf bank. The triangular area downslope is a good general area for butterflies.
Butterflies
The triangular area here is a good spot for blues, brown argus and sometimes clouded yellow.
4
Carry on along the ditch bottom, past the entrance to the hill fort. The short turf is dominated by dwarf sedge (Carex humilis), with much bird's-foot trefoil, common rockrose and horseshoe vetch.
Butterflies
Look out for blues, brown argus, small copper and small heath.
5
At the corner, turn into the hill fort entrance and bear immediate left, to head back along the foot of the inner rampart slope. The sheltered pits (borrow pits) are good for butterflies on windy days and in late summer. The grassy dome on your right was largely ploughed up in the Second World War. It's good for orchids, meadow pipit and skylark.
Butterflies
A good area of marsh fritillary and general butterflies.
6
Back at the south-west corner, though this time just inside the hill fort, turn right to head north below the crest of the western ramparts, to the Roman fort fortifications. Turn right to follow this broad bank of short turf over old workings east, and then north until you reach the inner slope of the northern ramparts. Turn left, and you'll arrive back where you entered the hill fort.
Butterflies
The Roman fortifications are the main breeding area for the marsh fritillary, and a good area for other butterflies, including small heath.
End:
National Trust car park, grid ref: ST854113
