From prehistoric life at NWT Roydon Common to modern conservation techniques; in search of bats and dragons, wildflowers and nightjars; for the early bird or as the sun sets: it’s Norfolk Wildlife Trust’s free Explore the
Gaywood Valley mini-walk festival.
Between
Saturday 31 May and Sunday 8 June, celebrate the wildlife, landscape and history of the Gaywood Valley Living Landscape by taking part in Norfolk Wildlife Trust’s free mini-walk festival. Nine days, fourteen walks, seven different locations, in an area home to some of the finest wildlife in the UK.
Directly to the east of King’s Lynn, the beautiful countryside of the Gaywood Valley is easily accessible with many of its most interesting wild places freely open for you to explore and enjoy. Discover the Gaywood Valley’s wildlife-rich heaths, woods, commons, chalk streams, lakes and farmland. Nocturnal summer-visiting nightjars, rare black darter dragonflies, impressive minotaur beetles, adders and lizards, and numerous rare plants can all be found here. Mammals, including brown hares and several species of deer, also occur.
Chief Executive of Norfolk Wildlife Trust, Brendan Joyce said: “The walks in the festival are designed to help people discover how to be part of a Living Landscape; to help people explore the area and to provide ways of taking action – either practical conservation work with NWT or in their own gardens or managed land.
“They are part of a community project run by Norfolk Wildlife Trust called Delivering Living Landscapes, which is working in the Gaywood Valley in west Norfolk and Bure Valley in the Broads to engage local people with their landscape. We hope people will enjoy exploring and discovering the Gaywood Valley and take actions to help protect it.”
The mini walk-festival is free to enjoy thanks to generous support from the Heritage Lottery Fund and Dow King’s Lynn as well as donations of time and expertise from the many organisations leading the walks.
Robyn Llewellyn, Head of Heritage Lottery Fund East of England, said: “We are delighted to support Norfolk Wildlife Trust with this project that will connect communities to allow people to engage even more with their local environments. There is clear historic evidence of habitat loss and fragmentation in both Living Landscape areas and this project will provide opportunities for people to get directly involved in ensuring these special landscapes are here to be enjoyed and valued now and in the future.”
Download details of all the events, or explore all the
events taking place in the Gaywood Valley Living Landscape.