The reserve is owned by a wildlife partnership consisting of: Dover District Council, Kent County Council, Kent Wildlife Trust, National Trust, Pfizer Ltd, RSPB and Thanet District Council. The Trust manages the reserve on behalf of the wildlife partnership. Visit the Kent Wildlife Trust website

Location:

Situated around the estuary of the River Stour between Sandwich and Ramsgate. The Pegwell Bay Country Park and car park is situated on the north side of the Stour on the A256 and is well signposted. Bus 94,100 and 101 Ramsgate and Sandwich pass the entrance to the Country Park.

Access:

The main access is via Pegwell Bay Country Park, off the A256 midway between Sandwich and Ramsgate. Ample car parking is available at 50p per half day or £1 per day. Nature trails lead to a viewing hide and views over Pegwell Bay. South of the Stour. The reserve can also be reached from Sandwich via the Sandwich Bay Estate (toll £4) to Prince's Old Clubhouse, with parking just before the golf club gate on the sea front. Access is then by foot along the beach. Visitors are asked to avoid the beach at Shellness and the saltmarsh at Stonelees, both of which are sensitive because of roosting and breeding birds.

Points of Interest:

The Trust's largest nature reserve covering some 628 hectares is divided into three sections: Pegwell Bay and the Central Section and Buffer Zone to the south of the River Stour.

The reserve is made up of a complex mosaic of habitats: inter-tidal mudflats, saltmarsh, shingle, sand dunes, ancient dune pasture, chalk cliffs, wave cut platform and coastal scrubland. It is the best remaining complex of this type in southeast England, showing a complete series of seashore habitats from bare mud to mature dune pasture and scrubland.

The reserve is of international importance for its waders and wildfowl, best seen over winter or during the spring and autumn migrations. In winter, common waders such as dunlin, curlew, oystercatcher and redshank are joined by nationally important numbers of sanderling and grey plover. All these are best seen on the mudflats of Pegwell Bay. In summer, redshank, shelduck and oystercatcher stay to breed, and are joined on the shingle by ringed plovers and the rare little tern.

Botanically, the saltmarsh holds typical plants such as sea aster, sea-lavender and the rare golden samphire. New dunes show colonisation by sea sandwort, sea couch and marram grass, all of which bind and stabilise the shifting sands. Sea holly grows here too, with yellow horned-poppy on the shingle. On the dune pastures, southern marsh-orchids and pyramidal orchids can be found, whilst at Stonelees, marsh helleborines and bee orchids are flourishing under the management programme of scrub clearance and grazing.

Reproduced with kind permission of the Kent Wildlife Trust

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