A former golf course on England’s east coast has been transformed into a vast new wetland nature reserve, creating a 30-hectare haven for some of Britain’s most precious wildlife.
National Trust Sandilands, on the Lincolnshire coast, has officially opened following six years of planning, consultation and habitat creation, turning former fairways and greens into wetlands, grassland and coastal scrub.
Covering an area equivalent to around 42 football pitches, the new reserve has been designed to provide valuable habitat for native wildlife and an important stopping point for birds undertaking extraordinary migrations along Britain’s east coast.
And nature appears to have wasted little time moving back in.
Avocets and oystercatchers have already successfully nested and bred at Sandilands this year, while little ringed plover chicks have been recorded at the site for the second consecutive year.
The reserve is also expected to provide habitat for lapwing, snipe, terns and gulls, as well as migratory visitors including black-tailed godwit, spotted redshank and spoonbill.
Sandilands lies on the edge of Mablethorpe and Sutton-on-Sea, within the Lincolnshire Coastal Country Park, and forms part of the internationally important East Coast Flyway.
Every year, thousands of birds follow Britain’s eastern coastline as they journey between breeding grounds in the Arctic and northern Europe and wintering grounds further south.
The new reserve therefore represents another important refuge along one of Europe’s great wildlife migration routes.
Katie Scott, National Trust Area Ranger at Sandilands, said wildlife had begun returning before the project was even completed.
She said many of the species expected at the reserve were rare or endangered and could travel thousands of miles during their migrations.
Places such as Sandilands provide somewhere for the birds to “rest, feed and breed”, she said, helping them to recharge before continuing their remarkable journeys.
The scale of the transformation has been considerable.
Nearly 52,000 cubic metres of earth was moved to create the new wetland habitats, enough, according to the National Trust, to fill 21 Olympic-sized swimming pools, or the Elizabeth Tower, home of Big Ben, 11 times over.
More than 35,000 native coastal shrubs have also been planted, including sea buckthorn, gorse, goat willow and blackthorn.
Green hay collected from a nearby Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust reserve was spread across the site to help establish species-rich grassland, introducing plants including wild carrot, yarrow, yellow rattle and red clover.
The result is a dramatically different landscape from the golf course which previously occupied the site.
The National Trust acquired the two-kilometre stretch of Lincolnshire coastline in March 2020, following a donation from a supporter and funding through its Neptune Coastline Campaign.
It represented the conservation charity’s first coastal land acquisition in Lincolnshire.
The transformation has since been backed by £2 million from Mablethorpe Towns Fund investment through Connected Coast, £1.5 million from National Highways and £200,000 from the UK Government Shared Prosperity Fund, delivered by East Lindsey District Council.
Local organisations, community groups and volunteers have also played a part in bringing the project to life.
Sandilands now joins a much larger network of protected landscapes along this magnificent stretch of the English coast.
The wider Lincolnshire Coastal Country Park covers around 3,500 hectares, or 8,649 acres, including a five-mile stretch of coastline from Chapel Point to Sandilands.
Alongside other reserves managed by Natural England, Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust and the RSPB, it helps create a chain of beaches, dunes, grazing marshes, saltmarsh, lagoons and reedbeds supporting wildlife along the coast.
Creating the new reserve was not always straightforward.
Work had to be carefully timed around nesting birds and migration patterns, while drought and record-breaking heat presented additional challenges.
Nicola Craven, the National Trust’s Coast and Countryside Manager for the Lincolnshire coast, said the work had deliberately been “stop-start” to avoid disturbing birds during the crucial breeding season.
With the major work now complete, attention is turning to what happens naturally over the coming years.
“Our ambition is for this site to continue its natural recovery over the next decade, creating richer habitats, supporting more species and offering greater opportunities for people to connect with nature close to where they live,” she said.
Volunteers have been an important part of that effort.
Ranger volunteer Ryan Stamp, who helped plant native shrubs and undertake other work at Sandilands, described watching the reserve develop week after week as “really rewarding”.
He said seeing the site becoming a thriving wetland filled with plants, insects and birds he had never previously encountered was a reminder of both nature’s resilience and what communities could achieve by working together.
Visitors should now see an ever-changing display of British wildlife throughout the seasons.
During summer, the wetlands are expected to buzz with dragonflies, bees and butterflies, with avocets among the birds overhead.
Winter will bring a very different spectacle, with whooper swans, wigeons and brent geese arriving on the Lincolnshire coast after leaving colder breeding grounds further north, including Iceland and Norway.
And this is not simply a sanctuary to be admired from afar.
New boardwalks, footpaths and visitor facilities have been installed to make the reserve accessible to more people, allowing families and visitors of different ages and abilities to get closer to nature.
A visitor hub and café have also opened.
Chris Baron, chairman of Connected Coast, said the development would give people more reasons to visit and enjoy the Lincolnshire coastline, while creating opportunities for employment and volunteering within the local community.
National Trust Director of Land and Nature Harry Bowell summed up the remarkable transformation as one “from fairways to flyways”.
It is an appropriate description.
Where golfers once walked between manicured greens, wildflowers, insects and birds are taking their place.
And on a coastline which has welcomed migrating wildlife for generations, a new piece of the great British landscape is being given back to nature, while remaining open for people to explore and enjoy.
For a nation blessed with extraordinary coastlines, countryside and wildlife, Sandilands is a heartening example of what can be achieved when communities, conservationists and volunteers come together to look after them for the generations still to come.
For more information visit https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/sandilands-project
