Ketton Quarry

A wonderful meeting of nature, people and geology, nature is reclaiming parts of Ketton Quarry, which is still a working limestone extraction site. As the hills and holes have been allowed to recolonise with grassland and woodland, wildlife has crept back in to create a real wildlife hotspot in the east of Rutland.

Summer is the best time to enjoy a wander. See what butterflies you can spot in the meadows and in the glades under the trees – marbled white, dingy skipper and grizzled skipper are some of our star species. The site is also home to many rare moths and even glow worms! If you’re lucky, and very quiet, you might spy reptiles basking in the sunshine (spring is best to spot an adder). The wildflowers here add colour and diversity, with bee orchid, cowslip, yellow-wort, autumn gentian, viper's bugloss and carline thistle all thriving.

We’re making sure that we let some of the scrub grow wild; whilst scrub can quickly overtake a delicate meadow, it does provide a much-needed habitat for birds like nightingales and turtle doves, which have both been heard in the spring. The beech wood contains the only colony of yellow bird's-nest in Leicestershire and Rutland.

Some of the rock faces are kept clear of vegetation to facilitate geological study, however, we have unfortunately had to close the geology trail following rock falls that have made the rock faces unstable.