Aston Rowant National Nature Reserve

Aston Rowant

Site of Special Scientific Interest
Aston Rowant NNR view from Chiltern Chalk escarpment in the reserve over Oxford Clay plain, looking west
Area of Search	Oxfordshire Buckinghamshire
Grid reference	SU728972
Interest	Biological
Area	128.5 hectares
Notification	1988
Location map	Magic Map

Aston Rowant National Nature Reserve is located on the north-west escarpment of the Chiltern Hills, in the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It has an area of 159.1 hectares, and most of it is a 128.5 hectare biological Site of Special Scientific Interest. It is listed as a Grade 1 site in A Nature Conservation Review. The reserve is in several sections, mostly in the parishes of Aston Rowant and Lewknor in Oxfordshire, with smaller sections in the parish of Stokenchurch in Buckinghamshire.

The reserve is home to plants and butterflies of chalk grassland. The flowers include a number of orchids and the Chiltern gentian; the butterflies include the silver-spotted skipper and the Adonis blue.

As well as chalk grassland, the reserve contains woodland with beech, yew, and juniper. Overhead, reintroduced red kites are resident.

The Aston Rowant reserve is managed by Natural England assisted by the Oxford Conservation Volunteers. It offers a nationally important habitat of chalk grassland and juniper scrub with significant areas of hanging beechwood at Aston Rowant Wood.

Aston Rowant is especially noted in spring and summer for the wildflowers and orchids associated with close-cropped chalk grassland, managed by careful grazing regimes. Orchid species recorded include common spotted orchid, fragrant orchid, pyramidal orchid, bee orchid, frog orchid, early purple orchid and greater butterfly orchid. Other flowers include eyebright, scabious, marjoram, Chiltern gentian, and yellow-wort.