Watchtree Nature Reserve is located about 5 miles west of Carlisle, half way between Carlisle and Wigton. It’s was turned into an Airfield back in 1943 and was sold off in the early 60’s. It wasn’t until the early 2000’s it was turned into a Nature Reserve.
Totally free to come along, ideal for walks, cycling (especially for the children) or just looking to see the local wildlife.
There are some hides to see birds at feeders or some that over look small lakes / ponds.
Well worth a visit if you live in the area or are visiting North Cumbria.
[Music] Today I’ve come to a place called Watch Tree Nature Reserve. The nature reserve is located probably about 5 milesi west of Carile. It’s halfway between Carile and Wigton where it’s about a 15-inute drive from Carlile. just the last couple of miles. The roads are quite narrow, so you just need to be careful there. The history of this place, it was originally a farm up until 1941. With the wartime act, it was then acquired to build as an airfield. The airfield opened in 1953. I think it ran until about 1952, and it wasn’t then sold off until 1964, which I believe local farmers acquired it. between the 60s and certainly the 80s right up to about 2000. It was used for various uses mainly agricultural use. It was used for car rallying. There was also a microite flying school here for a period of time as well as well as used for clay pigeon shooting. It wasn’t until I think it was 2001 when we had the foot and mouth outbreak. The site was actually used for a burial ground for all the slaughtered cattle of that time. which gave the area a pretty bad name. Uh it destroyed local house prices as people didn’t want to live here and eventually I think it wasn’t until about 2001 2002 something like that shortly afterwards anyway that a group of locals worked with Dera and came up with a plan to turn it into a nature reserve. I think Dera officially funded it for about 10 years. Uh the group got a 25-y year lease on the place from I think from about 2004. So that’s due to end in 2029 and I’d guess it would because of the nature of the place now it would easily be renewed. Defra still do actually part fund and help with the nature reserve. It’s primarily run by volunteers. There are six wind turbines on here which you will see as well and you do walk very very close to them. I came here probably about three or four weeks ago and the first thing I noticed when I got out of the car and walked down there was the noise that these wind turbines make. Being an old airfield as well, it’s very flat. There’s some good pathways and everything, tarmac, it’s also used for cycling. There’s a lot of people turn up here with their own push bikes. You can also hire push bikes and you get a lot of people cycling around, especially kids and everything. And I was a bit concerned as to how much wildlife you would see with the noise of the turbines and all these people cycling around everywhere. But you’ll see that there are two or three really, really nice locations where you get off the track a little bit where there’s some hides that you can sit in and you do get some absolutely wonderful views. There’s a couple of hides which overlook lakes and especially this time of year, it’s August, they are fairly well overgrown, so visibility can be quite limited. If you’re using just a pair of binoculars or just looking yourself with your eyes, then you’ll probably see a fair bit. But for photography wise, sometimes it’s a little bit restricted. So other times the year might be better. [Music] Just thought I’d stop here. This is uh the first of the wind turbines down here. There’s six in total. And you can probably see just over my shoulder there how close you can actually get to these things. It’s probably a fence down the bottom there about 20 foot away from the base there. And I don’t know whether it’s picking up on the video here the noise that these are making. Uh there’s actually quite a bit of noise. Not sure what the wind speed is today, but reading up on these, these need to be between 30 and 55 mph wind speed to be at their optimum. And the course of the year, they actually only put about a quarter of their capacity out there. Apparently, originally, they used to be 10 smaller ones, and then over time, they then replaced them with six of these larger ones. [Music] [Music] So, I’ve come to the first hide and this is one where they’ve just got a bird feeder set up outside here, probably about 4 meters away. And you get a fair few of the birds coming in. Uh there are some lines around the top here as well so that the birds will come in sometimes land on those before they go to the bird feeder. And sometimes they do land on the other folage there. Trying to get a few nice shots here. So, I’ve actually sat here for probably an hour or so And in that time I’ve sat here, there’s probably been one elderly couple walking. It’s really busy mall for cyclists and people walking around. They don’t tend to come off the little beaten track into the hides here. And there’s a seems to just be a flurry of birds. Um you’ll sit here for probably 5 10 minutes, might just see one bird come in and all of a sudden they just come in like a swarm. Uh all fighting for getting onto the feeder and everything. These hide windows uh you just basically flip open. There’s a catch on the top here which you just close up when you put away and just put the catch across. So what I’m going to do next is I’m going to go to the hide that’s attached to this one. Um it’s just literally the other side of the wall behind me this side but it’s upstairs. This is the upper hide and lot more light up here. See the roof here? That’s the roof of the lower hide. And don’t know if you can just about see over the top of the roof where the bird feeder is. So, you can’t really see a lot here. This hide is really all about looking out this side. And you’ve got the pond there. Uh the problem is is that the reads all on the front here are so overgrown, you can’t see so much. You only see probably like the ducks on the very far side over there. So, I probably won’t get many pictures here. There is another pond over the other side uh behind those trees. Again, it’s fairly well overgrown like this, but I will go and have a look at that. [Music] [Music] I’ve just come around to the hide for the lake. You really do struggle to see anything here. I’ll turn the camera around and I don’t know whether it shows on there. All this is just overgrown here in front of the lake to see anything. There is an island halfway in the middle of the lake there, a small island. And I can see through the uh reads or whatever they are here that there’s several ducks on there. Um, and there’s a cute down the right hand side there. So basically, um, this would be pretty hard to get any decent photographs here. Really not much to see from this hide. So get back outside. Going to carry on what would be effectively around the border from where I walked in. And up there on the right hand side here, there’s something called pow wood. And it’s okay. You might see one or two birds in there. Um it’s not uh it’s just somewhere nice to walk. And then a little bit further on from there is something called pondwood. And that’s where I’m really looking forward to going to next. There’s a there is another sort of a hide there with several bird feeders. You do have to stand. And these are little small cutouts that you put your lens through. But also there, as the name suggests, there’s a another pond. And that’s actually a really really nice pond. It’s it’s fully overgrown. There’s a nice sort of like bordered area to walk on to the edge of this pond. And when I was here last time, there was absolutely loads of damsel flies and all sorts there. So, it’s more sort of for insects. Uh was a couple of birds there as well. So, you can sort of stay there a while and see various different things. But, I’ll head up to these woods now. And it’s these woods here on the right. So, it’s not far up there. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] That’s a a short walk around Poundwood. It’s very dense and I don’t know if you can hear the wind blowing now. I mean, where I’m sat here, it’s cuz of the Odin field just behind me there, you get quite a lot of breeze come through here and it’s really really nice cuz it’s been so hot today. But when you actually get round past that field, there’s no breeze whatsoever. I think all I see around there was just one female blackbird just before I got to the the bench here. Uh when I come here three or four weeks ago, uh there’s a small sort of like bench halfway round and I had a a uh a robin come out and sort of pose for me. I stood there probably about 5 10 minutes photographing this robin. So there’s some there’s always something to see. It’s just about being in the right place at the right time. So it’s worthwhile going off on these little beaten tracks that you you just normally wouldn’t do. [Music] This is the other little hide. Uh you just literally walk in all open. Um it’s got all these little sort of like filling holes. The bird feeders are actually the other side. They’re fairly close. [Music] This is where you come into the pond. So they’ve got this suppose open platform here for when the water is up and you can at least see some of the life that might come in closer by. But this is the actual pond and it’s pretty well an established overgrown pond with all these reads and everything. Uh, lots of damsel flies all down here. And you got all these reads all around here. I mean, this is all water around here. And it goes through there. And that is bank up on the top there where the trees in there are, but I don’t know whether it’s flooded around the back as well. But this is a nice place just to sit and watch really more insect life than anything. [Music] [Music] I’m nearly back to the beginning again now. And just directly behind me here is the original control tower that was built. There’s various ways you could walk. Um where I joined this pathway back up there. I could have gone through the woods on the back here. Um, and they’ come out just up there about another 50 yards. And I’ve just got to literally walk to the end of this path and that’s where the it join more or less joins the roadway which drives into the site. behind me here is literally where I drove in to get here earlier. So, it just goes down here and we’ve got down the bottom there the visitor center and the cafe and where you do all the bike car and everything like that. So, back to the beginning. Hope you’ve enjoyed this video. I will say that if you do live certainly within a reasonable distance of Carlile, come and visit the place. It’s free of charge. You don’t have to spend a penny. Uh if you got kids, bring the bikes or just just go have a nice walk around. You pick a day like this and it’s absolutely lovely. Uh you can bring your own food, have a picnic, have a wander around, and it’s really nice. If you’re holidaying or visiting the area, especially North Cumbria, uh it’s well worth a day out. I mean, it’s middle middle of August at the moment. Uh the Lake District is just literally over that way. You’ve probably seen the hills in some of the video and pictures. If you go around places like Amblesside and Windermir, the roads are going to be so congested that it’s just nice just to get out somewhere like this, which is really nice and quiet. Come out, sit around in the hides, look at the wildlife, uh, see what you can find. Thanks a lot for watching.