List of Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Leicestershire

Ulverscroft Valley

The stream running through Lea Meadows has white-clawed crayfish and brook lampreys, both of which are legally protected. It is part of Ulverscroft Valley.

Leicestershire is a county in the East Midlands of England with an area of , and a population according to the 2011 census of 980,000. Leicester City Council is a unitary authority, and the rest of the county is administered by Leicestershire County Council at the top level, with seven district councils in the second tier, Blaby, Charnwood, Harborough, Hinckley and Bosworth, Melton, North West Leicestershire and Oadby and Wigston.

In England, Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs) are designated by Natural England, a non-departmental public body which is responsible for protecting England's natural environment. Designation as an SSSI gives legal protection to the most important wildlife and geological sites. As of January 2018, there are seventy-six SSSIs in the county, fifty-seven of which are designated for their biology, twelve for their geology and seven for both criteria.

There are nineteen Geological Conservation Review sites, six Nature Conservation Review sites, one Special Area of Conservation, three national nature reserves, two are common land, and three contain scheduled monuments. One site is a local nature reserve, thirteen are managed by the Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust, and one by the National Trust. The largest site is Bradgate Park and Cropston Reservoir at . It has rocks dating to the Ediacaran period around 600 million years ago, and is very important for the study of Precambrian palaeontology. The smallest is Gipsy Lane Pit at , which is important to mineralogists as it is rich in sulphides, some of which are unidentified. Template:Side box

Key

Interest

• B = a site of biological interest
• G = a site of geological interest

Public access

• FP = access to footpaths through the site only
• NO = no public access to site
• PP = public access to part of site
• WTPR = Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust permit required for access
• YES = public access to the whole or most of the site

Other classifications

• CL = Common land
• GCR = Geological Conservation Review
• LNR = Local nature reserve
• LRWT = Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust
• NCR = Nature Conservation Review
• NNR = National nature reserve
• NT = National Trust
• SAC = Special Area of Conservation
• SM = Scheduled monument

Sites

Site name	Photograph	B	G	AreaTemplate:Efn	Public access	LocationTemplate:Efn	Other classifications	MapTemplate:Efn	CitationTemplate:Efn	DescriptionTemplate:Efn
Allexton Wood	Allexton Wood	Green tickY			NO	Uppingham		Template:Nature on the map	Citation	This coppice semi-natural wood is on soils derived from glacial and Jurassic clays. The dominant tree is ash, and elm and pedunculate oak are also common. There are several small streams with populations of opposite-leaved golden saxifrage.
Ashby Canal	Ashby Canal	Green tickY			YES	Leicester		Template:Nature on the map	Citation	The site has diverse aquatic flora and invertebrates, and the submerged plants are of particular interest. These include mare's tail, spiked water-milfoil and perfoliate pondweed. Nine species of dragonfly have been recorded, and there are also water shrews and the nationally rare water beetle haliplus mucronatus.
Bardon Hill	Bardon Hill	Green tickY			YES	Coalville		Template:Nature on the map	Citation	The hill is a surviving fragment of the formerly extensive Charnwood Forest, and it has both woodland and heath. Mature oak dominates the lower slopes, with pine plantation higher up, and a mixture of heath, acid grassland, rock outcrops and scrub oak at the top. The hill is notable for its lichens and invertebrates, especially spiders with 133 species including the rare Tetrilus macrophthalmus.
Bardon Hill Quarry	Bardon Hill Quarry		Green tickY		NO	Coalville	GCR	Template:Nature on the map	Citation	This quarry has been operated for over 400 years and produces three million tonnes of crushed rock a year, about 15% of the total production in the United Kingdom. It exposes rocks from an andesitic Precambrian volcano, similar to the 1995 Montserrat eruption, about 570 million years ago. There are veins of quartz containing copper and gold.
Barrow Gravel Pits	Barrow Gravel Pits	Green tickY			YES	Loughborough		Template:Nature on the map	Citation	This site in the flood plain of the River Soar has open water in the former gravel pits, marshes, hay meadows, woodland and scrub. Aquatic plants include yellow water lily, rigid hornwort, lesser pondweed and fan-leaved water crowfoot.
Beacon Hill, Hangingstone and Outwoods	Beacon Hill	Green tickY	Green tickY		PP	Loughborough	GCR, NCR	Template:Nature on the map	Citation	Beacon Hill has diverse breeding birds, such as green woodpeckers, tawny owls and tree pipits, and it is one of only three sites in the county with breeding palmate newts. The Outwoods and Hangingstone are of international importance for their fossils of early Precambrian life forms.
Benscliffe Wood	Benscliffe Wood	Green tickY			NO	Leicester		Template:Nature on the map	Citation	This wood has one of the richest varieties of lichens in the East Midlands, with over thirty species growing on Precambrian rocks. Eleven of the species are rare in the county.
Blackbrook Reservoir	Blackbrook Reservoir	Green tickY			FP	Shepshed		Template:Nature on the map	Citation	The reservoir has a plant community on its margins which is unique in the Midlands and only found in a few northern sites. Its unusual mix of flora includes Juncus filiformis at its most southern locations, and the lake itself has native white-clawed crayfish, where it is isolated from the invasive American signal crayfish.
Botcheston Bog	Botcheston Bog	Green tickY			NO	Leicester		Template:Nature on the map	Citation	This grazed marsh on peaty soil is dominated by carnation sedge, hard rush, creeping bent and meadowsweet. Other plants include several which are rare in the county.
Bradgate Park and Cropston Reservoir	Cropston Reservoir	Green tickY	Green tickY		YES	Leicester	GCR, SM	Template:Nature on the map	Citation	Bradgate Park has one of the best examples of ancient parkland in the county, and Cropston Reservoir has unusual plants on its shores. The park has Charnian rocks dating to the Ediacaran period around 600 million years ago, and it has provided the type section for four different members of the stratigraphic sequence. It is described by Natural England as "a site of great importance to the study of Precambrian palaeontology".
Breedon Cloud Wood and Quarry	Breedon Quarry	Green tickY	Green tickY		PP	Loughborough	GCR, LRWT	Template:Nature on the map	Citation	Cloud Wood is an ancient semi-natural wood on clay. It has a very diverse ground flora, including pendulous sedge, yellow archangel and giant bellflower. The quarry is a nationally important geological locality, exposing a Lower Carboniferous succession deposited in shallow seas.
Breedon Hill	Breedon Hill	Green tickY			YES	Loughborough		Template:Nature on the map	Citation	This is the largest area of species rich carboniferous limestone in the county. Herbs include bulbous buttercup, harebell, burnet saxifrage, musk thistle and hairy violet.
Briery Wood Heronry, Belvoir	Briery Wood Heronry	Green tickY			NO	Grantham		Template:Nature on the map	Citation	This is the largest heronry in the county, with up to thirty breeding pairs. The dominant trees are mature oaks and ash, with a ground flora of bracken and dog's mercury.
Buddon Wood and Swithland Reservoir	Swithland Reservoir	Green tickY	Green tickY		NO	Leicester	GCR	Template:Nature on the map	Citation	The reservoir provides a refuge for waterfowl during the winter, and Buddon Wood has over 200 species of vascular plants, a third of British spider species including one which is nationally rare, 20 butterflies and 200 moths. Buddon Hill quarry is geologically important, and it is disputed whether an area of andesite dates to the Cambrian or the earlier Ediacaran.
Burbage Wood and Aston Firs	Burbage Wood and Aston Firs	Green tickY			PP	Hinckley	LNR	Template:Nature on the map	Citation	These semi-natural woods on poorly drained soils are dominated by ash and oak. Hazel and hawthorn are common in the shrub layer, and there are flowers such as sweet woodruff and water avens.
Cave's Inn Pits	Cave's Inn Pits	Green tickY			NO	Lutterworth		Template:Nature on the map	Citation	These disused gravel workings have some of the best neutral marsh in the county, with varied habitats also including scrub, species-rich grassland and shallow pools. There are diverse species of breeding birds.
Charnwood Lodge	Charnwood Lodge	Green tickY	Green tickY		PP	Coalville	GCR, LRWT, NNR	Template:Nature on the map	Citation	This is the largest area of moorland in the East Midlands, and it is mainly covered by bracken on dry hills, while wet heath is dominated by purple moor-grass. The site is geologically important for the 'bomb' rocks, volcanic blocks dating the Ediacaran period around 600 million years ago.
Chater Valley	Chater Valley	Green tickY			NO	Uppingham		Template:Nature on the map	Citation	This steeply sloping stretch of the valley of the River Chater is a semi-natural mosaic of grassland and spring-fed marsh. There are diverse breeding birds, invertebrates and herbs, including tormentil, betony and one of the few populations in the county of moonwort.
Cliffe Hill Quarry	Cliffe Hill Quarry		Green tickY		NO	Coalville	GCR	Template:Nature on the map	Citation	This quarry on the western outskirts of Markfield exposes volcanic and sedimentary Charnian rocks dating to the Precambrian eon. It was probably then a volcanic island. The rare mineral diorite is sometimes called markfieldite because it is found in the village.
Coalville Meadows	Coalville Meadows	Green tickY			YES	Coalville		Template:Nature on the map	Citation	These meadows on poorly drained clay soils are dominated by great burnet, red fescue, Yorkshire fog and tufted hair-grass. Herbs include pignut and heath bedstraw.
Cotes Grassland	Cotes Grassland	Green tickY			YES	Loughborough		Template:Nature on the map	Citation	This meadow on the bank of the River Soar has a thin soil on alluvial river gravels. It has several plants which are uncommon in the Midlands, such as soft trefoil, spotted medick, knotted hedge-parsley, wild clary and subterranean trefoil.
Cribb's Lodge Meadows	Cribb's Meadow	Green tickY			YES	Melton Mowbray	LRWT, NCR, NNR	Template:Nature on the map	Citation	The embankment of a disused railway runs through this ridge and furrow neutral meadow on boulder clay. The diverse flora includes adder's tongue fern, pepper saxifrage, hayrattle and green-winged orchid.
Croft and Huncote Quarry	Croft Quarry		Green tickY		NO	Hinckley	GCR	Template:Nature on the map	Citation	This site exposes igneous tonalite rocks 452 million years old, in the Ordovician period, and it helps to document the growth of continental crust beneath central England. This layer is unconformably overlain by Triassic mineralised manganese.
Croft Hill	Croft Hill	Green tickY			YES	Hinckley		Template:Nature on the map	Citation	This site has short, tussocky grass in an open habitat, a nationally rare vegetation type. The granitic soil is thin and short of nutrients. The nationally scarce upright chickweed is abundant in some areas.
Croft Pasture	Croft Pasture	Green tickY			YES	Hinckley	LRWT	Template:Nature on the map	Citation	The River Soar runs through this unimproved grazed meadow, which is dominated by common bent and crested dog's-tail. A knoll in the north of the site has uncommon flora such as meadow saxifrage, common stork's-bill and subterranean clover.
Croxton Park	Croxton Park	Green tickY			PP	Melton Mowbray		Template:Nature on the map	Citation	This medieval park has unimproved rough grassland with a scatter of ancient oaks and hawthorns. The breeding birds are diverse, and more than ninety lichen species have been recorded, including many which are uncommon.
Debdale Meadow, Muston	Debdale Meadow	Green tickY			NO	Grantham		Template:Nature on the map	Citation	This traditionally managed meadow has diverse flora typical of the clay soils of the Midlands, and it has evidence of medieval ridge and furrow cultivation. Flora include cowslip, bulbous buttercup and pepper-saxifrage.
Dimminsdale	Dimminsdale	Green tickY	Green tickY		PP	Coalville	GCR, LRWT	Template:Nature on the mapTemplate:Efn	Citation	Dimminsdale has semi-natural woodland and one of the largest areas of unimproved acidic grassland in the county. Earl Ferrers' lead mine, which is located on the site, has a unique and complex mixture of minerals such as galena and zinc blende; their genesis is little understood and they provide great potential for research.
Donington Park	Donington Park	Green tickY			NO	Loughborough		Template:Nature on the map	Citation	The park was mentioned in the Domesday Book, and it has been managed as a deer park for all of its recorded history. Most of it has a short grass sward, with areas of bracken and ancient oaks, which provide a habitat for rare beetles and spiders.
Enderby Warren Quarry	Enderby Warren Quarry		Green tickY		NO	Leicester	GCR	Template:Nature on the map	Citation	This former quarry is described by Natural England as nationally important as it is the only one in Britain where it can be shown that palygorskite clay soil has been formed by the action of groundwater on Triassic and pre-Triassic sediments.
Eye Brook Reservoir	Eye Brook Reservoir	Green tickY			NO	Uppingham		Template:Nature on the mapTemplate:Efn	Citation	The reservoir is an important site for wintering wildfowl, such as wigeon, teal, mallard and pochard. Other habitats are marsh, mudflats, grassland, broad-leaved woodland and plantations.
Eye Brook Valley Woods	Great Merrible Wood	Green tickY			PP	Uppingham	LRWT	Template:Nature on the map	Citation	These are surviving fragments of the medieval Leighfield Forest. Park Wood is mainly ash and wych elm, while Bolt Wood and Great Merrible Wood are dominated by ash and field maple. The shrub flora is diverse, and there are also several small pools and marshes.
Frisby Marsh	Frisby Marsh	Green tickY			YES	Loughborough		Template:Nature on the map	Citation	This site has spring-fed marshes, grassland, woodland and a pool and channel which are the surviving parts of a former ox-bow lake of the adjacent River Wreake. The marshes have a rich flora, with plants such as marsh valerian and marsh arrowgrass.
Gipsy Lane Pit	Gipsy Lane Pit		Green tickY		NO	Leicester	GCR	Template:Nature on the map	Citation	This site is important to geologists for its Triassic stratigraphy, and to mineralogists as it is rich in sulphides, some of which are unidentified and imperfectly understood compounds. Natural England describes the site's interest as "unique in Britain, and possibly internationally".
Grace Dieu and High Sharpley	Grace Dieu and High Sharpley	Green tickY	Green tickY		PP	Coalville	GCR	Template:Nature on the map	Citation	This site is composed of several fragments of the formerly extensive Charnwood Forest, and it has diverse habitats of heath, woodland, rock, scrub and acid grassland. Grace Dieu Quarry exhibits a thin marine Lower Carboniferous layer of Carboniferous Limestone, close to the Midland shoreline around 340 million years ago.
Grantham Canal	Grantham Canal	Green tickY			YES	Grantham		Template:Nature on the map	Citation	This site has diverse aquatic and terrestrial habitats, which supports a varied insect community. The canal has floating plants such as fat duckweed and water fern, and there are breeding birds such as sedge warblers, moorhens and reed warblers.
Great Bowden Borrowpit	Great Bowden Borrow	Green tickY			NO	Market Harborough		Template:Nature on the map	Citation	This former railway borrow pit has an unusual marsh, dominated by soft rush, tufted hair grass and cottongrass. Other plants include bulrush and bog moss. Snipe feed on the site.
Groby Pool and Woods	Groby Pool	Green tickY			YES	Leicester		Template:Nature on the map	Citation	Groby Pool is the largest natural lake in the county, and it is used by many wintering wildfowl. The marginal vegetation is diverse, and there is also wet woodland and meadows which have grasses such as common bent, sweet vernal grass and crested dog's-tail.
Harby Hill Wood	Harby Hill Wood	Green tickY			FP	Melton Mowbray		Template:Nature on the map	Citation	This site has steeply sloping ash and sycamore woodland, with areas of spring-fed marsh and colonies of wild daffodils. There is also an area of species-rich dry grassland, which has flora such as pignut and musk thistle.
Holly Rock Fields	Holly Rock Fields	Green tickY			NO	Coalville		Template:Nature on the map	Citation	This is a nationally important site as most of it is the nationally scarce National Vegetation Classification type MG5, crested dog’s-tail and common knapweed grassland. The fields have not been subject to agricultural intensification, and they are floristically diverse.
Holwell Mouth	Holwell Mouth	Green tickY			YES	Melton Mowbray	CL	Template:Nature on the map	Citation	This marsh on Jurassic clay is in the valley of the River Smite, which runs through the site. There are also areas of grassland, bracken and woodland, and the diverse habitats support a range of birds and insects.
Ives Head	Ives Head		Green tickY		NO	Coalville	GCR	Template:Nature on the map	Citation	This site exposes volcaniclastic sandstones dating to the late Precambrian, around 600 million years ago. It is important for the global understanding of the early evolution of Ediacaran environments.
Kendall's Meadow	Kendall's Meadow hedge	Green tickY			NO	Hinckley		Template:Nature on the map	Citation	Over a dozen grass species grow on this traditionally managed hay meadow, such as common bent, red fescue, crested dog's tail and yellow oat grass. There are also many herbs including cat's ear and yellow rattle.
Kilby - Foxton Canal	Kilby – Foxton Canal	Green tickY			YES	Leicester		Template:Nature on the map	Citation	Nine species of pondweed have been recorded on the canal, two of which are nationally rare, and submerged plants include Nuttall's waterweed and yellow water-lily. Fleckney Tunnel has a long established colony of Daubenton's bats.
King Lud's Entrenchments and The Drift	The Drift	Green tickY			YES	Melton Mowbray	SM	Template:Nature on the mapTemplate:Efn	Citation	This site has limestone grassland with tor-grass, cock's foot, crested dog's-tail and red fescue. Herbs include salad burnet, field scabious, germander speedwell and perforate St John's-wort, and there is also some broad-leaved semi-natural woodland.
Launde Big Wood	Launde Big Wood	Green tickY			YES	Leicester	LRWT	Template:Nature on the map	Citation	This wood on heavy clay is dominated by ash, and in some areas by wych elm. The ground layer has flora typical of ancient clay woods, such as bluebell, forget-me-not, yellow archangel and giant bellflower.
Leighfield Forest	Leighfield Forest	Green tickY			PP	Leicester	NCR	Template:Nature on the map	Citation	These woods in the Eye Brook valley date back at least to the thirteenth century. The dominant trees are ash and oak. The diverse moths and beetles include some rare species, and others are at the northern limit of their distribution. There are also areas of grassland and marsh.
Lockington Marshes	Lockington Marshes	Green tickY			NO	Loughborough		Template:Nature on the map	Citation	This site in the floodplains of the River Soar and River Trent has a periodically flooded meadow, pools and one of the largest areas of willow carr in the county. The invertebrate fauna includes nationally rare beetles and flies, and scarce species such as the water beetle batenus livens and the weevil anthribus fasciatus.
Loughborough Meadows	Loughborough Meadows	Green tickY			YES	Loughborough	LRWT	Template:Nature on the map	Citation	This is the largest area of unimproved alluvial flood meadow in the county, and wet areas are dominated by creeping bent and marsh foxtail. A brook has large areas of marsh foxtail, and there is a field with breeding lapwings and redshanks.
Lount Meadows	Lount Meadows	Green tickY			NO	Coalville		Template:Nature on the map	Citation	This slightly acidic grassland site has hay meadows with diverse grass species. There are also areas of species-rich rough pasture, scrub and marsh, which is dominated by plicate sweet-grass and water horsetail.
Main Quarry, Mountsorrel	Main Quarry, Mountsorrel		Green tickY		NO	Leicester	GCR	Template:Nature on the map	Citation	According to Natural England, this site "is probably the most dramatic and well-developed occurrence of asphaltite in Britain upon which international research into the origin of life on Earth has been carried out."
Misterton Marshes	Misterton Marshes	Green tickY			NO	Lutterworth		Template:Nature on the map	Citation	This is one of the largest areas of unimproved wetland in the county. Its large areas of tall fen are dominated by common reed, reed canary grass and lesser pond-sedge. There is also an area of grazed marsh and a stream.
Muston Meadows	Muston Meadows	Green tickY			YES	Grantham	NCR, NNR	Template:Nature on the map	Citation	These ridge and furrow meadows are on soils derived from clay. Herbs include green-winged orchid, lady's bedstraw, yellow rattle, pepper saxifrage and cowslip.
Narborough Bog	Narborough Bog	Green tickY			YES	Leicester	LRWT	Template:Nature on the map	Citation	This site has a large area of common reed on peat, and there is also wet woodland, dominated by crack willow. Both areas have diverse species of butterflies and moths, including several which are locally uncommon. In the south of the site there are two wet grazed meadows and more woodland.
Newhurst Quarry	Newhurst Quarry		Green tickY		NO	Shepshed	GCR	Template:Nature on the map	Citation	This is the only British site where hypogene mineralisatin, deep in the earth, has been weathered during the Triassic, around 225 million years ago. It is also the only British site to have the minerals coulsonite and vesignieite.
Newton Burgoland Marshes	Newton Burgoland Marshes	Green tickY			NO	Coalville		Template:Nature on the map	Citation	This site is in two areas, with the northern one having wet grassland and species rich marsh, while the southern one is well-drained grassland. Herbs in the marsh include ragged robin, marsh marigold, meadow thistle and southern marsh orchid.
Oakley Wood	Oakley Wood	Green tickY			NO	Loughborough		Template:Nature on the map	Citation	This site provides the only example in the county of the transition from oak woodland on free draining acid soil to the ash and hazel typical of the heavy clays of eastern central England. Rides add to the variety of flora, with woodland species such as lily of the valley and yellow archangel.
One Barrow Plantation	One Barrow Plantation		Green tickY		NO	Shepshed	GCR	Template:Nature on the map	Citation	This site exposes rocks dating to the late Precambrian, around 600 million years ago. The deposits are mainly volcanic ash, thought to have been deposited in the sea from volcanoes on neighbouring islands similar to those now found on the western edge of the Pacific Ocean.
Owston Woods	Owston Woods	Green tickY			YES	Oakham		Template:Nature on the map	Citation	The dominant trees in these woods on Jurassic and glacial clay are ash and hazel. There are diverse moths, beetles and other insects, including some rare species, and there is also a variety of birds and small mammals.
Pasture and Asplin Woods	Pasture Wood	Green tickY			NO	Shepshed		Template:Nature on the map	Citation	These ancient woods on poorly drained clay soils are dominated by ash, with a shrub layer of hazel and hawthorn. There are herbs characteristic of ancient woodland, such as wood anemone and sweet woodruff.
River Eye	River Eye	Green tickY			PP	Melton Mowbray	NCR	Template:Nature on the map	Citation	This unpolluted clay stream has rich and diverse flora and fauna. Marginal vegetation includes bulrush, branched bur-reed and greater pond sedge, while shallow, fast-flowing stretches have curled pondweed and perfoliate pondweed.
River Mease	River Mease	Green tickY			PP	Coalville	SAC	Template:Nature on the mapTemplate:Efn	Citation	The river has nationally significant populations of two species of freshwater fish, spined loach and bullhead. Vegetation is sparse in the upper reaches as the stream is fast-flowing, but there are stands of floating sweet-grass, and aquatic flora is more varied lower down, where the river flows slowly across a flood plain.
Roecliffe Manor Lawns	Roecliffe Manor Lawns	Green tickY			NO	Leicester		Template:Nature on the map	Citation	This grassland site on Precambrian rocks has a wide variety of fungi, including several species listed in the provisional Red Data Book of threatened species for fungi. There are many mushrooms of the genus Entoloma.
Saddington Reservoir	Saddington Reservoir	Green tickY			YES	Market Harborough		Template:Nature on the map	Citation	The reservoir has a range of wetland habitats, such as open water, wet willow woodland and swamp. There are a number of nationally scarce beetles, such as Carabus monilis, Atheta basicornis, Eledona agricola and Gyrophaena lucidula.
Sheepy Fields	Sheepy Fields	Green tickY			NO	Market Bosworth		Template:Nature on the map	Citation	The two hay meadows in this site are on post-glacial river terrace deposits. There are diverse herbs such as lady's mantle, adder's tongue, hayrattle, pepper saxifrage, bulbous buttercup and cowslip.
Sheet Hedges Wood	Sheet Hedges Wood	Green tickY			YES	Leicester		Template:Nature on the map	Citation	This is typical of ancient woods on clay soils in central and eastern England, and ash is dominant in the canopy, while the shrub layer has hazel, field maple, hawthorn, elder and privet.
Shepshed Cutting	Shepshed Cutting		Green tickY		YES	Shepshed		Template:Nature on the map	Citation	The Triassic deposits in Shepshed Cutting are unique, with a flat sheet of galena resting on red clay, and the whole enclosed in sandstone. The site is described by Natural England as "of international importance for developing a better understanding of the origins of mineral deposits and the processes which form them".
Sproxton Quarry	Sproxton Quarry		Green tickY		YES	Melton Mowbray	GCR	Template:Nature on the map	Citation	The quarry exposes one of the most complete sections of the Middle Jurassic Lincolnshire Limestone Formation, together with the underlying Grantham and Northampton Sand Formations. It has rare ammonites. Sproxton Quarry is a Reference Section for the Grantham Formation.
Stanford Park	Stanford Park	Green tickY			YES	Lutterworth		Template:Nature on the map	Citation	The park has avenues of oak trees, together with other large trees in an area of pasature. It has the most diverse lichens in the county on the bark of mature trees and on old stonework, including fifteen species not recorded elsewhere in Leicestershire.
Stonesby Quarry	Stonesby Quarry	Green tickY			YES	Melton Mowbray	LRWT	Template:Nature on the map	Citation	This site on Jurassic Lincolnshire Limestone has grassland with diverse herb species, such as autumn gentian, cowslip, dwarf thistle, small scabious, pyramidal orchid and clustered bellflower.
Swithland Wood and The Brand	Swithland Wood	Green tickY		.	YES	Leicester	GCR, NCR	Template:Nature on the map	Citation	Swithland Wood is typical of the acid and loamy soils of the Midlands, and its dominant trees are sessile oak, silver birch and small-leaved lime. The Brand is a former slate quarry which has many lichens, including species rare in the region.
Terrace Hills Pasture	Terrace Hill Pasture	Green tickY			PP	Grantham		Template:Nature on the map	Citation	This site has been designated an SSSI as an example of old calcareous pasture, but some areas are former quarries, and as a result there is an undulating terrain. The dominant grasses are crested dog's-tail, sweet vernal grass and red fescue, and there is also a small stream with an area of marsh.
Tilton Cutting	Tilton Cutting		Green tickY		YES	Leicester	GCR, LRWT	Template:Nature on the map	Citation	This is the best site in the East Midlands which exposes the sequence of rocks in the Lower Jurassic around 180 million years ago. There are many fossils, including Tiltoniceras acutum, an age-diagnostic ammonite. The site has rich flora and diverse common birds.
Twenty Acre Piece	Twenty Acre Piece	Green tickY			YES	Loughborough	CL	Template:Nature on the map	Citation	This site has grassland, scrub and wood on poorly drained acidic clay. The woodland is mainly hawthorn, oak and ash, and there are diverse populations of breeding invertebrates and birds.
Ulverscroft Valley	Ulverscroft Valley	Green tickY			PP	Leicester	LRWT, NT, SM	Template:Nature on the map	Citation	This is described by Natural England as one of the best wildlife sites in the county, with grassland, heath, woodland and wetlands. Over 200 plant species have been recorded, with an especially rich flora in wet areas and diverse species of moths.
Wymondham Rough	Wymondham Rough	Green tickY			YES	Melton Mowbray	LRWT	Template:Nature on the map	Citation	This clay grassland has a rich flora, dominated by common bent, Yorkshire fog, false oat-grass and cock's foot. A poorly drained area has plants such as water avens, and there are drier soils in the west of the site.

See also

• List of local nature reserves in Leicestershire
• Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust