Ham Wall

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Address
RSPB Ham Wall, Meare, Ashcott, Glastonbury BA6 9SX
Grid ref
ST449397

Ham Wall is a wetland teeming with wildlife - from rare species like water voles and otters to magnificent birds like bitterns and kingfishers. Enjoy stunning views across the marshes to Glastonbury Tor and make some time to follow secluded paths through the mystical landscape.

Plan your visit

Opening times

Reserve is open at all times.

Car park opening times:

  • 1 October - 31 January, 5am - 6.30pm
  • 1 February - 31 March, 5am - 8pm
  • 1 April - 30 September, 5am - 10pm

Entrance charges

Free entrance to RSPB members
Yes
Adults
Free, but donations are very welcome.
Children
Free, but donations are very welcome.
Car park cost
  • Pay and display.
  • £1.50 per car for up to 2 hours.
  • £3 per car for all day (more than 2 hours).
  • RSPB members park for free when displaying membership card on the dashboard. 
  • Blue badge holders park for free.

Facilities

  • Visitor centre
  • Car park
  • Toilets
  • Accessible toilets
  • Baby changing
  • Refreshments
  • Picnic area
  • Guided walks
  • Viewing point
  • Nature trails
  • Shop off-site
  • Educational facilities

Accessibility

How to get here

By train

The nearest railway station is Bridgwater, 10 miles (15 km) from the reserve.

By bus

Nearest bus stop is at Ashcott, 2.5 miles (4 km) away. 375/X75 service.

By bike

National Route 3 runs nearby.

By road

From Glastonbury: Take the B3151 to Wedmore. At the village of Meare, go past garage on your left and take the next left into Ashcott Road. The reserve entrance is 1 mile on the left after the Railway Inn.

From the M5: Take the A39 to Glastonbury for 7 miles until you see signs for Avalon Marshes Centre, turn left onto Shapwick Hill and carry on into the village and past the church. Continue on through the village and stay on the same road for 1 mile until you reach the Avalon Marshes Centre on your right. Continue past the Avalon Marshes Centre taking the next right at Back Lane in Westhay. At the end of Back Lane turn right onto Main Road.

Follow Main Road for about 1.5 miles through the village of Meare past Meare Manor on your left. You will reach a narrow part of the road with a colourful painted fence on your left. Here you need to turn right onto Ashcott Road. The reserve entrance is 1 mile on the left after the Railway Inn. 

Sat nav POI file: If you have a satellite navigation system that can accept POI files, please see our POI page for a download link and instructions.

Get directions from Google Maps
RSPB reserves on Google Earth

Information for dog owners

Dog owners are asked to keep their dog on a short lead at all times whilst at Ham Wall. There are no dog waste bins on the reserve, we ask that you take the waste home with you to dispose of.

Group booking information

All visitors arriving in coaches and minibuses must book in advance by contacting the reserve office on ham.wall@rspb.org.uk to obtain a parking permit.

Guided tours available for groups. To book contact the Ham Wall Office to obtain a walks booking form. This needs to be completed and returned to ensure booking. At time of booking please state number in group, mobility issues and any special interests as well as preferred dates. Please note we may not be able to accommodate you on your preferred dates. No dogs are allowed on guided tours.

Schools booking information

Join us at RSPB Avalon Marshes near Glastonbury for our outdoor learning programme in partnership with Natural England. We have an LotC accredited scheme and run educational activities for students from KS1 to A-Level standard. Our exciting variety of hands-on activities ensure memorable learning experiences throughout the year. Boardwalks, hides and pond dipping platforms enable groups to experience the wetland wildlife of Avalon Marshes at close quarters. We have a covered education shelter on Ham Wall and a classroom at the Avalon Marshes Centre to use in wet weather.

We have a number of exciting programmes on offer range from pond dipping and mini beast hunting to learning how to study biodiversity. Each programme is designed to last two hours, sessions run from 10am - 12pm and then 12.30pm - 2.30pm. Two programmes can be combined to make a whole day visit.

  • Primary: From £4 per child with a minimum charge of £80 for a half day and £130 for a full day.
  • Secondary: From £5 per child with a minimum charge of £100 for a half day and £160 for a full day.
  • A level: From £6 per student with a minimum charge of £100 for a half day and £160 for a full day. 

Contact our School's Administrator Jane Allen on jane.allen@rspb.org.uk for a booking form and to find out more. 

What will the weather be like?

19 degrees, Cloudy

Downloads

Helping you find your way around. PDF, 2.4Mb.

RSPB Ham Wall trail guide

Contact Ham Wall

What will you see?

Our star species

Recent sightings

Kingfisher emerging from water with fish

Find out more about recent wildlife sightings at Ham Wall.

read more

Nature spectacles

Starling murmurations are a true wonder of the natural world and the Avalon Marshes are one of the best places in the UK to come and witness this amazing wildlife spectacle. In the winter, hundreds of thousands of starlings congregate here and roost in the reed beds overnight. Starling numbers are greatest in December and January, however large numbers of birds can turn up from the end of October until start of March.

Murmurations can start an hour or so before sunset (arrive by 3.00pm to ensure you catch the spectacle). We get a lot of visitors during the starling season, and the weekends, can be particularly busy so consider coming on a weekday if you can. You can call the starling hotline on 07866554142 on the day of your visit to find out where they roosted the night before.

Equally spectacular are starlings erupting from their roost in the morning, putting on a stunning show. Listen to them calling to each other, moving between groups, before swooshing up into the sky. A good time to see this can be 7.30am – we recommend arriving at the roost site 30 minutes before sun rise. If you are lucky, you may even have the reserve to yourself. 

Seasonal highlights

The ‘boom’ of the male bittern can be heard echoing across the reserve and flying females bringing food to their young. Swallows, swifts, martins and hobbies arrive from Africa - up to 30 hobbies may be seen in the air at one time. A large roost of dragonflies may be seen at dawn during May.

Hunting barn owls eagerly look for voles and mice for their young and seen regularly at dawn and dusk in summer. Broods of young ducks and grebes amongst the reedbed edges. Iberian water frogs chorus noisily in the ponds near the welcome building.

The railway line is a hive of activity with birds feeding on berries and seeds. Kingfishers flash up and down the ditches - check the canal crossing the railway bridge. Bearded tit flocks ‘ping’ in the reeds and may be seen flitting from edge to edge.

Hundreds of thousands of starlings arrive to roost in the reedbeds at dusk often performing spectacular murmurations. In icy weather chances of spotting elusive otters increase, particularly near the Tor View Hide, when they gambol across the ice. Stunning great white egrets can be seen fishing from the reed edges. 

About Ham Wall

Habitat

The habitats at Ham Wall has been created from old peat workings and are now a mature and thriving wetland made up of extensive reedbeds and open water, grassland and woodlands. The reserve was designed to provide the best habitat possible for wetland species particularly bitterns. 

Conservation

Ham Wall is managed to keep the wetland habitats in the best possible condition for the wildlife that lives there. The reedbeds are cut and the vegetation removed on a rotation to maintain a good reedbed age structure and to help stop the reedbed drying out. The cut reedbed vegetation is turned into a soil conditioner that can then be used in gardens and allotments.

Water levels are managed across the reserve to provide the ideal conditions for wildlife. Cattle graze the reedbed and grassland during the summer months.

Site information

Ham Wall is a 265-hectare site at the heart of the Avalon Marshes. Previously owned and worked by the peat industry Ham Wall was born in 1994 when the land was passed to the RSPB. The objective was to re-create vital reedbeds and help the struggling bittern population in the UK. The land was sculpted by machines, RSPB volunteers and staff grew reed from seed. Then came the hardest part, planting thousands of young reeds by hand. All this hard work and further land acquisitions over the years paid off when bitterns first bred at the site in 2008.

Ham Wall is important for new species colonising the UK with great white egrets, little bitterns and cattle egrets all breeding on the reserve recently.

Latest blog posts

read our blog

Activities and events

Activities for children and families

We run exciting events throughout the year during school holidays ranging from spooky pumpkin trails at Halloween to bug hunts, night walks and canoeing during the summer. Join one of our events to discover something new.

The main path through the reserve is wide and flat (with an incline either side of the railway bridge) making it pushchair friendly. Its also a local cycle route - great for family bike rides away from traffic.

Near the Visitor Welcome building we have a wooden food cycle sculpture trail for children to follow to learn about who eats who, as well as a willow eel to play in.

Leisure activities

A local cycle way / footpath running through the heart of the reserve (the old railway track) links to Shapwick Heath National Nature Reserve and Glastonbury as well as Sustrans route 3. Providing a flat and even off-road cycle route for those looking to enjoy the countryside away from traffic. Please be aware that this route is shared with pedestrians.

There is disabled access to this reserve by RADAR key. Please ask at the Visitor Welcome building for more information or to borrow a key. 

Events

Saturday 26 May
Telescope and Binocular Open Day
Somerset
Thursday 31 May
Bitterns in Hot Pursuit!
Somerset
Tuesday 5 June
Nature by night at Ham Wall
Somerset
Sunday 17 June
Evening yoga at Ham Wall
Somerset
Tuesday 19 June
Nature by night at Ham Wall
Somerset
Saturday 30 June
Telescope and Binocular Open Day
Somerset
More events

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Starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) gathering above reed bed at Ham Wall RSPB Reserve which was being used as their winter (2004) roost.

Schools at Avalon Marshes

 Our exciting variety of hands-on activities ensure memorable learning experiences throughout the year.
Starlings Sturnus vulgaris, gathering above reed bed at Ham Wall RSPB reserve, winter roost, patterns seen were caused by predator Sparrowhawk Accipiter nisus

Starling murmurations

 A murmuration of starlings is an amazing sight - a swooping mass of thousands of birds whirling in the sky above
RSPB Giving Nature a Home Campaign

Create a cosy starling home

 Put up a starling nest box in your garden and give them a safe home where they can roost and raise their chicks.