North Cave Wetlands Nature Reserve
Please note that the toilets and hides are currently closed.
Reedbed work starting Monday 1st March - find out more below.
Location
OS Map Reference
SE 886328
Know before you go
Entry fee
FreeParking information
Free car park on Dryham LaneGrazing animals
Highland cows and Hebridean sheepWalking trails
A circular footpath runs around the perimeter of the original section of the reserve, part of which is surfaced and accessible to wheelchair users, as are three of the four hides. Following Dryham Lane to the west from the car park, you will reach Crosslands Hide. This large, hexagonal hide is made from straw bales and has a living green roof. Some paths may close during bird breeding season.
Access
Permissive footpaths. Keep to the marked paths and do not enter the deep water. More information below.
Dogs
Facilities
When to visit
Opening times
Open at all timesCar park open 0730 until dusk.
The Little Butty Bus is open from 8am til 2.30pm Tuesday to Sundays and Bank Holiday Mondays.
Best time to visit
March to September
About
A mixture of shallow and deep water lakes and reedbeds provide outstanding habitat for passage, breeding and wintering wildfowl, waders, terns and gulls. A 2km perimeter path gives access around the established nature reserve and five hides are positioned to give excellent viewing over key areas for birdwatchers and photographers alike.
Butterflies, dragonflies and damselflies thrive on the grassy banks beside the perimeter path; watch out for the emperor dragonfly and sometimes spy a water vole. There is a small colony of brown argus butterflies in the meadow between Main and Carp Lakes, access to which is opened in summer months.
Every season is a great time to visit North Cave Wetlands: During the winter the reserve has good numbers of wintering wildfowl and waders; spring sees the return of summer visitors which includes avocet, little ringed plover, oystercatcher, and a large black headed gull colony with Mediterranean gulls. North Cave also holds one of the largest breeding colonies of sand martins; in summer the reserve is full of fledgling birds, a wide range of dragonflies, grass snake and stoats; autumn sees the departure of summer visitors and the return of winter visitors along with many passage scarce birds.
And the good news is it's still a work in progress, so will continue to get better for wildlife and people!
Seasonal highlights
- Spring: Birds - Little ringed plover; Avocet; Redshank; Sand martin; Sedge warbler
- Summer: Invertebrates - Brown argus; Emperor dragonfly; Four-spotted chaser; Birds - Common tern; Hobby
- Autumn: Invertebrates - Common darter; Birds - Migrant waders; Tree sparrow
- Winter: Birds - Teal; Wigeon; Tufted duck; Water rail; Snipe
History
The original 40 hectare site was acquired by Yorkshire Wildlife Trust in 2001. In the following three years 250,000 tonnes of material was moved in, out or around the site to create a suitable open wetland habitat, with established trees confined to the boundaries and to the western end. Six large lakes provide both deep and shallow water with wide margins and islands, connected underground to give control over winter and summer water levels.
Starting in 2008 and finishing 12 to 15 years thereafter an additional 100ha of land to the immediate south and west is being quarried. This will be progressively restored with wildlife in mind before being gifted to Yorkshire Wildlife Trust.
Directions
Public transport
Nearest bus stop is North Cave village 0.5 miles away.
By car
Come off at Junction 38 of the M62/A63 and take the B1230 east to North Cave. At the first crossroad in the village, turn left onto Townend Lane and follow the brown reserve signs. If approaching north on the A1079 Market Weighton bypass take the minor road south through North Cliffe to North Cave then follow signs. The nature reserve is 15 miles west of Hull, of Cliffe Road on Dryham lane.
Mires Beck Nursery
Mires Beck Nursery is just next door to North Cave Wetlands - it's a perfect place to extend your visit!
In addition to their 14-acre site and huge array of plants, they have a woodland walk and provide horticultural training for people who have learning difficulties.
Accessibility
Visitors will have different access needs and abilities and we want to provide some basic information about the reserve to help you decide whether this is a place you would like to visit and to help you plan.
Walking at North Cave Wetlands
A circular footpath runs around the perimeter of the reserve which take one to two hours to complete. Footpaths are mainly grass and stone surface - all on a flat level for very easy walking, wheelchairs and pushchairs. The stone paths are accessible all year round but grass paths can get very muddy in winter.
Footpaths to South hide, Crosslands hide, East hide, Turret hide and Crosslands hide are hard surface footpaths.
Benches are located all around the reserve and in hides.
There are three gates on site - all are easy to open pedestrian gates.
Transport
There is a large car park with two disabled parking places situated at the entrance to the reserve.
Facilities
There are two compost toilets on the reserve with disabled access.
Five hides on site East, South, North, Turret and Crosslands. All hides except Turret are fully accessible with wheelchair viewing space. All hides have benches.
As the name suggests, there are two flights of steps up to Turret hide with six steps on each flight. This is the only access to turret hide.
One set of steps to Crosslands hide of approx. 8 steps. Also a disabled access path to the hide for wheelchairs and pushchairs,
The Little Butty Bus is on site from 8am to 2-30pm providing hot and cold food and drinks six days a week apart from Mondays.
There is very good mobile signal across the whole reserve.
The What3Words code for the car park is punters.merchant.diner
Reedbed work starting Monday 1st March
As part of the restoration at North Cave (from quarry to nature reserve), six years ago we planted two large reedbed nurseries with 10,000 reed plugs supplied by a local nursery. These were intended to be used as a major supply to the future extensions to the reserve.
These reedbeds have matured over the years and the quarry restoration is now at a stage where we can start to translocate the reeds into the future reserve extension. This work will begin on Monday 1st March.
The reeds will be cut by machine from the nurseries then transported on a large flat bed trailer along Dryham lane into the translocation site, so please don't be alarmed if you see this happening. It's all part of our planned work and vision for North Cave Wetlands.
Wigeon