Ham Wall

Ham Wall is a wetland National Nature Reserve on the Somerset Levels, four kilometres west of Glastonbury. It sits on land once worked for peat, where deep layers of decayed plants have formed over thousands of years. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds manages the 260 hectares of reed beds, open water and wet woodland. The site was created to help the bittern, a rare bird that had only eleven males in the UK in 1997. Other birds such as the little bittern and great white egret now breed here too. The reserve was built on old peat diggings that were abandoned when demand for peat fell. Bund walls left from the excavations make it easy to control water levels in different sections. Machinery and cattle keep the reed beds in good condition, while sluices and wind-pumps maintain the right mix of water and open water. By 2013 the site held 220 hectares of reed bed, 75 hectares of deep water channels and 10 hectares of wet woodland. It forms part of a wider partnership to protect the Avalon Marshes. Visitors walk a 2.7-kilometre loop along the canal and return on a grass track. A short spur leads to the Avalon hide, and two further circular trails branch off the main path. Boardwalks connect the routes, and six viewing screens stand beside the water. The landscape stretches out with wide skies and distant levels, where rare birds feed and breed unseen.