Kilkenny, Glos

9th August 2026

Nine members met at this Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust reserve high up on top of the Cotswolds on a warm sunny morning, hoping to find butterflies, and maybe even some autumn gentians in flower.

This has been another very hot, dry summer and the vegetation was pretty dried up. We could see the remains of many limestone-loving plants and agreed that another visit earlier in the year would be worthwhile. There were a lot of small scabious and field scabious, and it was useful to see them side by side for comparison. Although we searched diligently, we didn’t find any autumn gentians. Maybe it was too early for them, or maybe they had already gone over.

We saw a good number of butterflies, particularly Common Blues (Roger recorded 20), Gatekeepers, Meadow Browns, Small Heaths, Small Whites, and a Clouded Yellow, also a Chalkhill Blue on our recce on 27 July. The Kilkenny reserve is important as an area of unimproved limestone grassland which is rich in the flora that these butterflies and their caterpillars need.

There was a splendid crop of blackberries, which will be useful food for birds and small mammals – we left them plenty, but couldn’t resist picking a few as we passed by.

Many thanks to Brenda as always for compiling the list of plants seen, and to Roger for the list of butterflies. The plant list can be seen here.

Sue Morton