Glow worms and nightjars at Holt Heath field trip

Kingston Lacy Estate, The National Trust
Organiser: Peter Shallcross

Our Chairman led an evening walk on Holt Heath Nature Reserve (roughly 5 miles north-east of Wimborne Minster) for an hour or so as dusk came down, in search of glow-worms and nightjars. 

In a welcome innovation, we joined Peter for supper at the Cross ​Keys Inn, Holt Rd, Wimborne BH21 7JZ before setting out.  

If you'd like to go yourself, plan to get there at sunset.  Holt Heath is unhelpfully on two different OS maps - OS 118 (Shaftesbury & Cranborne Chase) and OL22 (New Forest) but you can also find it on Dorset Explorer - search for Holt Heath.

​Head for the pub and then continue westward along the road onto the Heath and look out for a parking area on the road on the left - on the map, its the more westerly of the bridle tracks that cross the road, at SU 051 045. There's an information board (sadly illegible) by the track that you can follow down to a 'cross roads'.  Don't forget to take a torch as the ground is quite rough and it will, of course, be dark.