Mist hangs over the woodland, and the air is damp and heavy with the musky-sweet scent of rain-soaked soil and decay – perfect conditions for seeking out snails. However, despite being celebrated in a Portland stone sculpture at the start of the trail, my target species – the cheese snail (Helicodonta obvoluta) – has a reputation for being elusive.
The nature reserve is located on the site of the old lime workings, where until the second world war chalk was quarried and burned in a series of lime kilns. During the war, the site was used by the Admiralty for enemy mine disposal, but at the end of the conflict, the site was abandoned. Left to nature, the landscape has slowly regenerated, developing into a habitat rich in chalk downland species such as the cheese snail, which favours a calcium-rich substratum.
