Wicken Fen, one of Europe's most important wetlands, supports an abundance of wildlife. There are more than 9000 species, including a spectacular array of plants, birds and dragonflies.
The raised boardwalk and lush grass droves allow easy access to a lost landscape of flowering meadows, sedge and reedbeds, where you can encounter rarities such as hen harriers, water voles and bitterns.
Wicken Fen Vision, an ambitious landscape-scale conservation project, is opening up new areas of land to explore. Our grazing herds of Highland cattle and Konik ponies are helping to create a diverse range of new habitats. (Source: National Trust)
Travel information
Wicken Fen National Nature Reserve (NNR) is in Ely, Cambridgeshire and located southeast of Peterborough. Although about a little over than an hour's drive from Peterborough I have to go to March town to meet my work colleagues. March is about 30 minutes drive from Peterborough and was another 45 minutess drive to Wicken Fen. I went down to the NNR last September 2022 for a site visit together with work colleagues.
Wicken Fen is the oldest nature reserve managed by the National Trust and considered the most famous fen in England. A fen is a type of peat-accumulating wetland fed by mineral-rich ground or surface water; it is one of the main types of wetlands along with marshes, swamps, and bogs. (Source: Wikipedia)
We had a quick morning tour with a warden from National Trust who guided us to some of the top features of Wicken Fen. Before the tour, a short walk from the carpark we passed by Fen Cottage (traditional fenland cottage) and had a quick glance from the outside.
The tour started from the visitor centre and into the historic undrained main area of the fen called Sedge Fen. As it was still summer, the area was quite dry. We then ventured out to the path beside Wicken Lode and onto Monk's Lode hoping to see the famous Konik ponies but they preferred to hide from us that day. We wandered back to the same route and back to Sedge Fen again to take the Woodland Walk. On the way to the woodland and back we had a good look at the historic and still working wind-pump.
We ended up our day with lunch at the Docky Hat Cafe. I quickly made way to the visitor centre shop to buy my customary postcards and fridge magnet before I drove back home. I also ended up buying two small bags of caramel fudge for the missus and children.
