Willow Tree Fen near Bourne

Watch the sun go down on this wide expense of Lincolnshire Fen and you may be treated to the trumpeting calls of Cranes coming in to roost in this wild area (photo Nick Williams), reclaimed from intensive farmland some 15 years ago. Many hundreds of Mallard ducks and sometimes more than a dozen Marsh Harriers also favour this area to roost, in addition to deer, hares and owls. This reserve gives you a flavour of what most of the 1500 square miles of fenland in Eastern England may have looked like before the huge drainage projects from the seventeenth century and onwards. Now there is a move in some areas to reverse all of this for carbon capture and wildlife conservation. There are over 100 nature reserves in the county. In addition most of the long sandy coastline is now protected as a national nature reserve. Lincolnshire is often associated with flat fenlands, but these occupy less than quarter of this large county, with rolling hills in the south west and north east. And, of course, the dominant limestone Lincoln Cliff Edge on which Hilltop Farm is situated and shows so well in our drone photos on our website.