Wicken Fen National Nature Reserve
A fenland National Nature Reserve of 254.5 hectares, cared for by the National Trust since 1899, with a boardwalk and a historic windpump.
A fen kept as it was worked
Wicken Fen covers 254.5 hectares west of the village of Wicken and is a National Nature Reserve. The National Trust has cared for it since 1899, after buying two acres for £10 on 1 May that year. Sedge has been cut for thatching here since at least 1414, the date of the earliest recorded harvest. Konik ponies and Highland cattle have been brought in to graze some areas and hold back scrub. Charles Darwin collected beetles here in the 1820s, and the Cambridge botanists Arthur Tansley and Harry Godwin carried out pioneering fieldwork from the 1920s. A wooden smock windpump built in 1908 at Adventurers' Fen was moved to the reserve and restored in 1956. The Wicken Fen Vision, launched in 1999, is a 100-year plan to enlarge the protected fen to 56 square kilometres.
Practical notes
The National Trust page for 12 October 2026 gave the nature reserve and the visitor centre as open from 09:30 to 17:00. An adult ticket for Sedge Fen was £11.00, or £12.10 with Gift Aid, and National Trust members enter free. On 12 October 2026 the Trust listed the Boardwalk and Woodland Walk as the routes open on Sedge Fen, and describes the circular Boardwalk and Woodland Walk as accessible, with access to two hides. Only assistance dogs are admitted to Sedge Fen. The reserve lies 9 miles south of Ely and 17 miles north-east of Cambridge via the A10, according to the Trust. The Trust names Ely, 9 miles away, and Soham, 5 miles away, as the closest stations, and points cyclists to National Cycle Network route 11 from Ely. Check the National Trust page for the day's opening times and open trails.
People connected with this place
- Charles Darwin (1809–1882), Naturalist