Snipe Dales
Parish: Winceby and Lusby
OS: 122 • GR: TF 319683 (Nature Reserve) and TF 330682 (Country Park) • Map ref: 49
Habitat type: Grassland
Nature Reserve: 53.9 hectares (133 acres) 1974
Country Park: 36.4 hectares (90 acres) 1987
The Nature Reserve and Country Park are owned by Lincolnshire County Council and are managed jointly by the Council and the Trust. A full-time Warden is employed by the Trust. The reserve is leased to the Trust and is declared as a statutory nature reserve. In 1992 the Trust purchased a further 5 hectares (12.3 acres) on the eastern side of the Country Park.
Autumn 2007 - Felling of Corsican pines in the Country Park has commenced. See the General News page for further information.
Location and Access
The Country Park car park is well signposted from the A158 Skegness-Lincoln road and from the B1195 Horncastle-Spilsby road. There is also a car park for the Nature Reserve close to the hamlet of Winceby. The car parks are approximately 1.6km (1 mile) apart and both have interpretive boards with maps.
The Country Park car park is the larger of the two, and has picnic tables, an emergency telephone and public toilets. It also has toilets for visitors with disabilities and a well-graded, easy access path to central ponds and a bird hide. There is open public access, but visitors are requested to observe similar conditions to those of our members' permit and to follow the waymarked footpaths.
A free colour leaflet about Snipe Dales is available from the Trust's headquarters in Horncastle or from the Warden. Dogs are permitted in the Country Park but not in the Nature Reserve.
Description and Management
Snipe Dales is situated on the southern edge of the Wolds and consists of steep-sided valleys fretted by streams, which have cut through the soft Spilsby Sandstone into the Kimmeridge Clay below. At the junction of the sandstone and clay there is a spring line giving rise to wet flushes and small streams.
Snipe Dales is one of the few substantial wet-valley systems in Lincolnshire that still survive largely unspoilt. There are waymarked walks of varying length that may be followed starting from either of the car parks.
For more information see: "The Principal Reserves - Snipe Dales Country Park and Nature Reserve"
