This site is leased from the West Dean Estate (The Edward James Foundation). Although its prime fame is for the series of well-preserved Bronze Age barrows, this area, situated in the middle of the western South Downs, is also of great interest ecologically for the presence of both classic chalk grassland and acidic clay-cap supporting Chalk Heath, a very rare feature of old chalk.

Click on the button below to learn more about the Devil's Jumps Round barrow cemetery.

Round Barrow Cemetery

When an area of commercial trees was cleared and made over to the Reserve, this chalk heath community made a bid for a come-back with both Bell Heather Erica cinerea and Ling Calluna vulgaris germinating in the disturbed soil, alongside other typical heathland plants, such as dwarf Gorse Ulex minor, Tormentil Potentilla erecta and Heath Bedstraw Gallium saxatile.

The barrows are a complete contrast, with plentiful Small Scabious Scabiosa columbaria and Harebell Campanula rotundifolia with occasional Round-headed Rampion Phyteuma orbiculare. This chalk grassland owes its existence to the barrow-makers who piled up chalk dug from below the clay cap when making their monuments.

The area is rich in insects, including the small mining bee Andrena marginata which only forages for pollen from scabiouses, here the Small Scabious. This bee makes its nest burrows, along with a large variety of other species, in the small patches of bare ground throughout the Reserve.

Grazing by cattle helps us maintain this interesting juxtaposition of grassland and flowers, although we also need to remove, periodically, scrub (notably Birch) in order to protect the grassland.