Broadcroft Quarry is a wonderfully untidy place! In our neat and ordered world untidy places are priceless and their chaos is, to my mind anyway, really refreshing and natural.
I suppose Broadcroft Quarry is not actually a natural environment being an area human kind has exploited for mineral extraction in the past but since it was left to its own devices nature has set about recolonising it with grasses and flowers thriving in the thin soil layer. It is even more unnatural as, despite the untidy appearance, it is still a site managed by human beings under the guise of British Butterfly Conservation. Mercifully, of course, this latter management is directly aimed at retaining the site for butterflies in particular, and for nature in general, and our sincere thanks should go to the volunteers who keep this an untidy place ideally suited to our insects that are too readily excluded from much our world by our passion for tidyness.
In mid-summer it is well worth fighting your way through the Weymouth traffic and making your way on to Portland. Portland itself is a unique area and Broadcroft Quarry is one of several places well worth a visit on the isle. There is another Butterfly Conservation reserve just across the raod at Perryfields.
Broadcroft Quarry covers quite a large area and has an interesting and diverse species list. In my view it is a top site!
See more photos and my species list here:
www.natureofdorset.co.uk/sites/broadcroft-quarry-nature-reserve
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