Ham Wall

In line with Government guidance on essential, daily exercise outdoors, our car park, trails and toilets are open through lockdown. Our welcome building and hides are closed, however our takeaway refreshments are still available. We are not running events. See full details below and our blog for more information. When visiting us please observe current guidance around social distancing, group sizes, hygiene and follow all signage on-site. We urge you to follow Government guidance on non-essential travel and please stay local to your nearest reserves and green spaces. Unless exempt, all those who can, must please wear a face covering inside our toilets. See our dedicated Covid-19 updates page for the latest safety information (link below). 

Address: RSPB Ham Wall, Meare, Ashcott, Glastonbury BA6 9SX

Grid ref: ST449397

See our reserves Covid-19 updates page for which sites are open and other important details.

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.

Visiting for starlings?

It is with great sadness that this year, for the safety of all our visitors, staff and volunteers, we ask that our visitors please try to visit alternative starling roost sites if possible before choosing to visit us at the Avalon Marshes or RSPB Ham Wall. While we’d love to welcome you, the government guidelines on social distancing measures and maximum gathering sizes mean we cannot safely accommodate the usual large numbers of people who visit us in the late afternoon and early evening for starlings.

Please click here to find out where your local alternative roost is to visit. If the Avalon Marshes roost is your local roost, we ask that you plan your visit carefully and avoid disappointment by reading our guidelines here.

Plan your visit

Reserve open: At all times

Car park and Toilet opening times:
1 October - 31 January, 5am - 6.30pm
1 February - 31 March, 5am - 8pm
1 April - 30 September, 5am - 10pm

Welcome Building: Open 10am- 4pm on weekends and as often during the week as we have a volunteer.

Festive opening times
Christmas Eve: reserve open dawn-dusk, Welcome Building and toilets closed.
Christmas Day: reserve open dawn-dusk, Welcome Building and toilets closed.
Boxing Day: reserve open dawn-dusk, Welcome Building and toilets closed.
New Year’s Eve: reserve open dawn-dusk, toilets and Welcome Building open 10am- 4pm.
New Year’s Day: reserve open dawn-dusk, toilets and Welcome Building open 10am- 4pm

All other days in the festive period are open our usual winter opening hours as above.

Free entrance to RSPB members: Yes

Adults: Free, but donations are very welcome.

Children: Free, but donations are very welcome.

Car park cost

There are no entrance charges to the reserve, but the following car parking charges apply:

RSPB members: FREE (please display your membership card face down in your windscreen)
Non-members: £3 per car
Blue badge holders: FREE

Facilities

Visitor centre is closed
Car park
Toilets
Accessible toilets
Baby changing
Refreshments
Picnic area is closed
Guided walks is closed
Viewing points are closed
Nature trails
Educational facilities are closed
Play area

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, then follow the brown sign, taking the second left into Ashcott Road. The reserve entrance is 1 mile on the left after the Railway Inn.

From the M5: 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. Here you will see a brown sign directing you to take the next right. 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

Dogs are welcome on the public footpaths around the reserve. Please keep to the designated rights of way only.

Please keep your dog on a lead at all times, due to the sensitive wildlife and here. We know that the countryside is a dog walking paradise. It’s important to remember the special surroundings here are wonderful havens for rare wildlife so we’ve dog-friendly routes for you and your pooch to enjoy. Even if dogs are very well behaved, wildlife can easily become startled by a loose dog they perceive as a predator.

Disturbing wildlife does more than simply causing it to move away; it uses up their energy, decreasing their chance of survival regardless of season. Thank you for protecting the special wildlife here by keeping your dog on a lead / under close, effective control.

The Reedbed trail, Waltons Heath trail and Loxtons Marsh trail, are not public footpaths, so sorry, no dogs are permitted here other than assistance dogs.
Dogs are welcome on the Ham Wall Loop apart from the path to the Avalon Hide.
A dog water bowl is available at the side of the Welcome Building.
Dogs can die in hot cars, please do not leave your dog in the car when visiting us.
There are no dog waste bins on the reserve, we ask that you take the waste home with you to dispose of.

Groups are usually welcome to visit the reserve during normal opening hours. However, changes to laws in England and Scotland mean that the maximum group size able to visit our reserves together is currently 6, unless you are from the same household or bubble, meaning we are unable to take bookings at this time.

Due to Covid-19 measures, we have temporarily paused our school visits until Spring 2021. For information on our exciting programme of curriculum-linked outdoor education sessions, visit our school trips information here.

In the meantime, check out our fantastic range of resources for teachers here, or take on the Schools’ Wild Challenge here.

15 degrees, Sunny day

Downloads

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

RSPB Ham Wall trail guide

Contact Ham Wall

RSPB Ham Wall, Meare, Ashcott, Glastonbury BA6 9SX
ham.wall@rspb.org.uk
Cannot currently take calls
@RSPBHamWall
Find us on facebook

What will you see?

Our star species

Bittern

The reedbeds at Ham Wall were specially created to encourage bitterns to return.

Bearded tit

Listen for their bell-like 'pinging' calls, then watch them whizzing across the tops of the reeds.

Great white egret

Keep an eye out for great white egrets feeding here.

Hobby

Falcons which arrive at Ham Wall in late April, leaving in September.

Nature spectacles

Ducks are one of the main attractions in the wintering months. Test your ID skills on the large numbers of widgeon, gadwall, teal, mallard, shoveler, and tufted ducks that are present. Can you spot the few pintail hiding among them? 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.

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.

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

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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.

Make the most of your journey

Starling roost

Starling murmurations are a true wonder of the natural world and the Avalon Marshes host a roost of it's own every year.

Marshside

Lytchett Fields

Arne

Ham Wall