Greenfields
Location
OS Map Reference
SJ 533 417
Know before you go
Entry fee
NoParking information
Car park nearby at Meadowcroft, SY13 1BDGrazing animals
Yes, at times.Walking trails
Figure of Eight route around the reserve.
Access
Public footpaths from Greenfields Way, the Whitchurch Arm of the Llangollen Canal and from the fields northwest of the reserve. Please keep dogs on a lead. Grazing animals may be on site.
Dogs
When to visit
Opening times
Open at all timesBest time to visit
April to JulyAbout the reserve
Nature flows into Whitchurch at Greenfields; its herb-rich pastures luring butterflies, moths and bees. It is a fragment of old farmland, too steep to plough up and change. Follow the figure-of-eight footpath up and down the reserve through wooded patches awash with bluebells in spring and into a sunny glade where green woodpeckers lick ants from anthills.
Pignut, fleabane and cuckoo flower – these once common flowers are not so familiar today, but at Greenfields you can find them. Look, too, for the bright blue flowers of brooklime at the stream’s edges and in marshy areas; and listen for water voles – this is one of the few remaining places in Shropshire where you may still hear them plopping into the water. Please keep dogs under control, especially when livestock are present.
Directions:
Turn off the Whitchurch bypass towards the town centre at the roundabout with the A525 [Wrexham road]. Take the first left and left again at the mini-roundabout into the car park off Meadowcroft. From the car park, walk down the bank and follow the footpath towards the town centre past a picnic area. The reserve is across the brook from this path. When you reach a road, take a look at the water vole interpretation panel before turning to your left, The reserve entrance is some 50m along on the left.