Sign at Sandy Banks

Image: © Alan Murray-Rust Taken: 15 Mar 2009

Shown as a Nature Area, but recently designated as a Reserve. Sandy Banks is a fortuitous survival of natural landscape, due to it being reserved for a main road that was never built. Its website describes it as follows: "Set in a green valley, it is a wildlife haven that would at one time have formed part of Sherwood Forest. It is situated 4 miles north of Nottingham City Centre in the Bestwood area of the city. The site covers 5.9 hectares and is one of the few remaining wild sites within the City boundary. The high valley sides provide an excellent viewing point looking south towards the city centre. The underlying Sandstone and free draining sandy soils give rise to conditions known as Lowland Dry Acid Grassland; this is a nationally rare habitat important for many kinds of invertebrates including beetles and solitary bees and wasps. The exposed areas of Sandstone and bare ground provide some of these insects with suitable areas for basking and burrowing. There are also plantation woodlands, stands of broom, bracken and areas of neutral grassland which although common habitats, add interest and structural diversity to the site. The woodland and scrub areas provide nesting and feeding sites for a wide range of birds, including Linnet, Chiffchaff and Whitethroat." For full details see http://www.nottinghamcity.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=3347

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