Key details
- Where: Wroughton, south of Swindon, SN4 9JS (OS grid reference SU136800)
- Run by: Wiltshire Wildlife Trust
- Size: 62 hectares
- Entry: free, open at all times
- Designations: Site of Special Scientific Interest, County Wildlife Site, and within an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty
- Dogs: on a lead
- Grazing animals: yes
Getting there
There is no car park at the reserve. The trust asks visitors to park at Ellendune Car Park in Wroughton, SN4 9LD. From the High Street, walk into Nursery Close at the traffic lights and carry straight on through the housing until you reach the junction with Badgers Brook, where the reserve entrance is.
- Bus: the trust's page gives bus 49 from Swindon to Wroughton. Swindon's Bus Company now lists service 9 from Swindon to Wroughton, so check the timetable before you travel
- Cycling: there are cycle racks at the Badgers Brook entrance. The trust says there is access from National Cycle Network route 45 towards Chiseldon
Access
There is a gravelled path in Kings Farm Wood near the Badgers Brook entrance, which then gives way to fields. The trust says the reserve is not suitable for pushchairs and wheelchairs. The ground is steep and often muddy in winter, when the trust advises wellies.
What you will see
The trust describes a walk from a stream-soaked valley floor up steep slopes to level land at the top, past mossy tree boles, large spreading trees and abandoned watercress beds.
Clouts Wood lies between Markham Banks nature reserve and Kings Farm Wood and Diocese Meadows. The trust suggests walking through all four areas for the contrast between them.
- The wood: it is managed in the traditional way as coppice, with some standard trees left to grow on. The trust says most trees are 50 to 100 years old, a few oaks are about 200, and records of coppice rights go back to the 1600s
- Plants: 29 ancient woodland indicator species grow here. From late June look for the tall yellowish spikes of Bath asparagus, a nationally scarce plant. The trust also lists green hellebore, wood vetch, herb-Paris, meadow saffron and wild garlic
- Fungi: in autumn, shaggy parasol, stump puffball and velvet shank
- Birds and animals: green and great spotted woodpecker, treecreeper, chiffchaff, blackcap, goldfinch, red kite and buzzard. You may see a roe deer
The trust says the best time to visit is spring and summer.
Next door
The reserve is next to the old RAF Wroughton airfield. The trust says Ministry of Defence flying there ended in 1972. The airfield now belongs to the Science Museum Group and holds its large-object store and library. See our Wroughton guide.
Hagbourne Copse and Morningside Meadows, two other Wiltshire Wildlife Trust reserves, are each about a mile away.
Contact
Wiltshire Wildlife Trust: 01380 725670 or info@wiltshirewildlife.org.
Updated 10 November 2026: an earlier version of this page said the reserve had wheelchair-accessible paths, was 1,000 years old and had a 4.3-mile circular route. The trust says it is not suitable for wheelchairs or pushchairs, and we could not confirm the age or the route length, so they have been removed.
Sources: Wiltshire Wildlife Trust, Clouts Wood, Swindon's Bus Company services. Checked 10 November 2026.
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