Accessibility features at our nature reserves

Jenny Bennion

Jenny is our Peatlands Communications Officer, working hard to let people know all about just how precious our peatlands really are. Jenny is never happier than when scrambling around in bogs and mosslands.

Bumblebee feeding on self heal on a garden lawn © Nick Upton

Making nature open for everyone is something that we are committed to here at The Wildlife Trust for Lancashire, Manchester and North Merseyside, so here’s a roundup of some of the accessibility features at some of our most popular nature reserves.

Accessibility features at Lunt Meadows Nature Reserve

This amazing nature reserve and flood storage reservoir is home to a network of wetlands, grasslands, reedbeds and meadows that are positively bursting with wildlife. Bitterns boom in the reedbeds, marsh harriers soar over head, whilst water voles plop in and out of the ditches. Oh, and there’s a 9,000 year old Mesolithic archaeology site thrown in for good measure.

Visitors to Lunt Meadows with reduced mobility can enjoy an accessible path leading straight form the car park (featuring disabled parking spaces) to a brand new accessible viewing platform.

Senior Reserve Officer at Lunt Meadows, Sam Willis, said: “The viewing platform is finished and open the everyone! The platform provides incredible views over our meadows and wetlands. It has been designed to be fully accessible for all, connected by our new path that follows the meadow from the car park. The platform will allow those who can't access the embankment along the River Alt to still take in the incredible views that are best enjoyed from a higher perspective. Making Lunt Meadows more accessible is the aim for the whole reserve.”

There is also an audio trail around the reserve, which is perfect for visitors with visual impairments, and whilst not all points on the audio tour are accessible for those with reduced mobility the entire audio tour can be accessed from either the car park or the viewing platform.

And don’t forget to include a visit to our fully accessible Learning Centre which also has a disabled toilet.

Accessibility features at Mere Sands Wood Nature Reserve

Mere Sands Wood is a little oasis of calm in West Lancashire featuring a mosaic of lakes and woodland. A large car park with disabled spaces, sits just in front of our fully accessible visitor centre and cafe, and is also the perfect jumping off place to start exploring the reserve. Kingfishers hunt for prey in the lakes, clouds of butterflies flutter above the meadows, whilst bats swoop through the trees as night falls.

Wooden viewing screen at Mere Sands Wood

Most of the paths around Mere Sands Wood are now surfaced and wide enough for wheelchair users and people with prams or buggies. This includes the entire blue route, orange route (including the meadow path), part of the green route and a former dirt track through the pines, and plans are afoot to refurbish the remaining paths in the near future.

Visitors with access requirements can also stop and enjoy the wonderful wildlife at any of the two viewing screens and three hides, all with accessible features. These include smooth, unobstructed entry ways and floors, with plenty of room to manoeuvre inside. They feature windows at various heights, some with benches and others with open window bays for wheelchair access.

We also place our interpretation boards at low heights so that they are accessible to a variety of users.

Surfaced paths and picnic benches in a woodland

Reserve Officer, Danny Myers, said: “People have certainly been enjoying the new paths, particular the meadow and pines paths, which were previously narrow and prone to getting quite wet or muddy. It’s wonderful to open Mere Sands Wood up to as many people as possible who want to enjoy this special place. I really love the accessible Fletcher Hide which overlooks the lake and surrounding woodland – it's the best place to spot a kingfisher; I’ve watched one here several times happily fishing from the depth gauge in full view of the hide. Perfect.”

Accessibility features at Brockholes Nature Reserve

What was once an industrial sand and gravel quarry is now over 100 hectares of amazing nature reserve featuring lakes, meadows, marshes and ancient woodland. Sand martins utilise the nest boxes by No 1 Pit Lake, whilst the islands in Meadow Lake are home to little egrets, lapwing and many more wading birds. Barn owls swoop over the marshes, rare white-hairstreak butterflies dot the woodland, and people move through the landscape to find their nature moments.

The large car park has 16 disabled spaces and leads you onto a network of level surfaced paths which wind around the reserve. Kissing gates are accessible for smaller wheelchairs and pushchairs. If you use a larger wheelchair, mobility vehicle or pushchair, a key is available to the vehicle access gates next to the kissing gates, from the Welcome Centre for a £10 refundable deposit.

During your exploration you may come across one of our viewing screens which have openings at various heights to suit all of our visitors. Our floating Visitor Village is fully accessible with disabled toilets.

Brockholes is also home to our wonderful new accessible outdoor classroom. Our Education Team is now able to offer fantastic nature experiences for children from a wide variety of education settings, and for those with limited mobility or other access requirements.

Find out more about about educational visits to Brockholes